Book Description

School is out for the summer, and with a life-changing ghost hunt and yearlong punishment behind him, fifteen-year-old JB is finally looking forward to the future. With a renewed sense of idealism, he jumps out of bed one morning, envisioning months filled with basketball games, adventures, meeting girls, and reconciling with an old friend. However, before he can even make it out the front door, life once again deals him a bad hand. A family crisis has arisen, and so JB must get a job as soon as possible in order to help support the household. His youthful dreams quickly wither and die, replaced instead with the inevitable and inconvenient realities of growing up. Off to a rocky start, he begins a marathon job hunt, filled with absurdities and challenges. Whether looking for work at upscale golf courses and boathouses, steamy restaurant kitchens with sludgy dumpsters, or even at a secluded frog-filled cottage, it seems JB’s mistakes have not been forgiven by the town as a whole just yet. When he finally lands the job that will last him the summer, he soon finds himself on a tightrope across the chasm of the unknown, balancing expectations and reality, success and failure, disillusionment and love. He works hard to impress his boss, coworkers, his crush, and himself, but only through trial and error does he stand a chance of understanding and accepting life as it is. By loosening the reins on his youthful fantasies, JB has the potential to discover new avenues in his life, leading him towards new connections, love, hopes, dreams, and the pain that comes with all of them.