I Can't Tell You - by Hillary Frank (Paperback)

About the Book

After he opens his big mouth in a fight with his best friend, Jake concludes that talking equals trouble. He decides that communicating through writing is safer. Through notes scribbled on napkins and in notebooks and on upside-down calculators Jake explores new ways to express himself.

Book Synopsis

After he opens his big mouth in a big fight with his best friend, Jake concludes that talking = trouble. He decides that communicating through writing is safer. Through notes scribbled on napkins and in notebooks, on upside-down calculators, and on walls with pudding-covered fingers, Jake explores new ways to express himself. But there are also the notes he never sends. To his flirty friend. Who is just a friend. But could be more than a friend. But isn't--or is she? Hillary Frank's inventive style envelops her readers in a new dimension of storytelling. Jake + Xandra = a story about what it means to be "just friends." All without saying a word.

Review Quotes

Ultimately, the novel's engaging jumble of correspondence amounts to a study of vulnerability, tentatively concluding that, when it comes to romance, playing it safe can be a risky approach.
Horn Book

The insight Jake gains from his self-imposed silve is satisfying, if not entirely profound. The insights readers will gain, however, are perhaps deeper, as Frank manages to convey a credible boy's-eye view on matters of the heart.
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

All in all, the author creates a story both clever and heartfelt.
Publishers Weekly

The creafully constructed, seemingly accidental nature of Jake and Xandra's story combines the banal with the amateur pholisophizing of college, and invites interesting comparisons between sexual sophistication and real understanding of how to relate with others.
Kirkus Reviews

Frank's experiment is fascinating.
Booklist, ALA