What do you think?
Rate this book
Paperboy #1
Gazeteci Çocuk
-Newbery Honor Onur Ödülü, 2014
- American Library Association Association for Library Service to Children (Amerikan Kütüphaneciler Birliği-Çocuklara Kitaplık Hizmetleri Derneği) - Dikkate Değer Çocuk Kitabı
-International Reading Association (Uluslararası Okuma Birliği) Çocukların ve Gençlerin Seçimi Olan Kitap
-International Reading Association (Uluslararası Okuma Birliği) Öğretmenlerin Seçimi Olan Kitap
- Junior Library Guild (Gençlik Kitaplığı Derneği) Seçtiği Kitaplardan Biri
- Bank Street College of Education (Bank Street Eğitim Koleji) Yılın En İyi Kitabı
- National Parenting Publications Award (Ulusal Aile Yayınları Ödülü) Onur Ödülü
- BookPage (İnternet Kitap Sitesi) En İyi Çocuk Kitabı
- ABC Yeni Sesler Derneği Seçilen Kitap
- American Library Association-YALSA (Amerikan Kütüphaneciler Birliği) En İyi Sesli Kitaplardan Biri
-Amazon.com (İnternet ) 9-12 Yaş arası, 2013 Yılının En İyi Kitaplarından Biri
(Tanıtım Bülteninden)
- American Library Association Association for Library Service to Children (Amerikan Kütüphaneciler Birliği-Çocuklara Kitaplık Hizmetleri Derneği) - Dikkate Değer Çocuk Kitabı
-International Reading Association (Uluslararası Okuma Birliği) Çocukların ve Gençlerin Seçimi Olan Kitap
-International Reading Association (Uluslararası Okuma Birliği) Öğretmenlerin Seçimi Olan Kitap
- Junior Library Guild (Gençlik Kitaplığı Derneği) Seçtiği Kitaplardan Biri
- Bank Street College of Education (Bank Street Eğitim Koleji) Yılın En İyi Kitabı
- National Parenting Publications Award (Ulusal Aile Yayınları Ödülü) Onur Ödülü
- BookPage (İnternet Kitap Sitesi) En İyi Çocuk Kitabı
- ABC Yeni Sesler Derneği Seçilen Kitap
- American Library Association-YALSA (Amerikan Kütüphaneciler Birliği) En İyi Sesli Kitaplardan Biri
-Amazon.com (İnternet ) 9-12 Yaş arası, 2013 Yılının En İyi Kitaplarından Biri
(Tanıtım Bülteninden)
212 pages, Paperback
First published May 14, 2013
588 people are currently reading
7565 people want to read
About the author
Vince Vawter
10 books126 followersVince Vawter is the author of PAPERBOY, a 2014 Newbery Honor book, and COPYBOY, a sequel published Aug. 1, 2018. The final book of the PAPERBOY trilogy — MANBOY — is available now on Amazon. He lives with his wife near the Great Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee on a small farm. Vawter spent 40 years in the newspaper business before retiring to write books.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,761 reviews
February 24, 2021
One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter.
--James Earl Jones
Sometimes a book is special to you, even before you crack the cover.
Somehow, without even knowing what the story's about, you know it's going to touch you. I said to my daughters, before we started this particular read-aloud, “This one's going to break my heart.”
It did.
This is the debut novel of a Tennessee native, Vince Vawter, a man who had a 40 year career in the newspaper business (remember newspapers?) and a man who has also stuttered for some 60 years. Mr. Vawter admits, in his “Author's Note” that he hasn't been "cured" of his stutter, but he has learned to “overcome it.” Part of his healing started when he received a typewriter, so he could type out his thoughts, instead of speak them.
I trust words on paper a lot more than words in the air.
The author also admits that this novel is “more memoir than fiction.”
This isn't a perfect debut. I found fault with the depiction, on the cover, of a tall lanky lad, only to learn that the protagonist looks nothing like that. I also struggled with the complete absence of quotation marks (though of course my beloved Kent Haruf didn't embrace them, either), but I sometimes struggled here to distinguish who was speaking.
My biggest complaint: I'd have loved it if the protagonist had been older, 13 or 14, to be precise. His feelings for the red-haired adult neighbor seemed awkward and out-of-place for an 11-year-old, and the drama/violence and adult language at the end of the story announced to my girls that this wasn't really a middle grades read, but rather a coming-of-age (YA) story. (Not that they didn't love every minute of that adult language).
But, those little niggles aside, I want to contribute that it's quite unbelievable to me that this is a debut work of fiction. Mr. Vawter's writing doesn't feel “green” to me, and maybe it's his age and experience that have contributed, overall, to the feeling here, of a highly nuanced story.
I don't mean to be arrogant by writing this, but I am both highly verbal and articulate. Spoken words fly, almost perfectly formed, out of my mouth, and verbal expression is about as easy as breathing for me. My whole family, in fact, is incredibly verbal, which is interesting, as the “Author's Note” also taught me that “scientific evidence is mounting that stuttering is hereditary.”
I have never given that much thought to this “issue,” not in a callous way, but, you know. . . we all have our problems, we all have our issues. There are only so many hours in a day. . .
Let's just say that I've never been invited in to the life and mind of a chronic stutterer before, and I was humbled to discover how much beauty was in one “stutterer's” desire for expression.
The fictional Vince is so appealing, and his juxtaposition, between the highly articulate Mr. Spiro and the deaf “TV boy” down the street, were so subtly informative.
This book expanded my consciousness and opened my heart.
We are so determined to be heard, we will use whatever it takes to scrawl our messages somewhere on this planet: sticks, rocks, voices, hands, knives, clay, paint, typewriters, computers.
I can't help but think right now of Tori Amos's stunning little song “Gold Dust:”
i was here
i was here. . .
--James Earl Jones
Sometimes a book is special to you, even before you crack the cover.
Somehow, without even knowing what the story's about, you know it's going to touch you. I said to my daughters, before we started this particular read-aloud, “This one's going to break my heart.”
It did.
This is the debut novel of a Tennessee native, Vince Vawter, a man who had a 40 year career in the newspaper business (remember newspapers?) and a man who has also stuttered for some 60 years. Mr. Vawter admits, in his “Author's Note” that he hasn't been "cured" of his stutter, but he has learned to “overcome it.” Part of his healing started when he received a typewriter, so he could type out his thoughts, instead of speak them.
I trust words on paper a lot more than words in the air.
The author also admits that this novel is “more memoir than fiction.”
This isn't a perfect debut. I found fault with the depiction, on the cover, of a tall lanky lad, only to learn that the protagonist looks nothing like that. I also struggled with the complete absence of quotation marks (though of course my beloved Kent Haruf didn't embrace them, either), but I sometimes struggled here to distinguish who was speaking.
My biggest complaint: I'd have loved it if the protagonist had been older, 13 or 14, to be precise. His feelings for the red-haired adult neighbor seemed awkward and out-of-place for an 11-year-old, and the drama/violence and adult language at the end of the story announced to my girls that this wasn't really a middle grades read, but rather a coming-of-age (YA) story. (Not that they didn't love every minute of that adult language).
But, those little niggles aside, I want to contribute that it's quite unbelievable to me that this is a debut work of fiction. Mr. Vawter's writing doesn't feel “green” to me, and maybe it's his age and experience that have contributed, overall, to the feeling here, of a highly nuanced story.
I don't mean to be arrogant by writing this, but I am both highly verbal and articulate. Spoken words fly, almost perfectly formed, out of my mouth, and verbal expression is about as easy as breathing for me. My whole family, in fact, is incredibly verbal, which is interesting, as the “Author's Note” also taught me that “scientific evidence is mounting that stuttering is hereditary.”
I have never given that much thought to this “issue,” not in a callous way, but, you know. . . we all have our problems, we all have our issues. There are only so many hours in a day. . .
Let's just say that I've never been invited in to the life and mind of a chronic stutterer before, and I was humbled to discover how much beauty was in one “stutterer's” desire for expression.
The fictional Vince is so appealing, and his juxtaposition, between the highly articulate Mr. Spiro and the deaf “TV boy” down the street, were so subtly informative.
This book expanded my consciousness and opened my heart.
We are so determined to be heard, we will use whatever it takes to scrawl our messages somewhere on this planet: sticks, rocks, voices, hands, knives, clay, paint, typewriters, computers.
I can't help but think right now of Tori Amos's stunning little song “Gold Dust:”
i was here
i was here. . .
July 24, 2013
I will preface my review with the fact that the author is my first cousin. As the story is semi-autobiographical, it was a real eye-opener to me to read of the struggles that he went through with his stuttering. He was just one of my cousins, who just happened to stutter. We treated him the same as all of our cousins. He was the oldest of the cousins, so he was basically the leader of our family pack. That being said, I loved the book. The story takes place during our childhood, which was in the segregated South. It shows the treatment of the help by the employers, and the love between the help and the children that they were raising. L'ill Man takes over his friend's paper route for a month. This seems like such a small matter, but to a child that stutters, it was a major undertaking. Delivering the papers was easy for a star baseball pitcher, but having to talk to the people to collect for the papers was traumatic. The different characters that he meets and their varied reactions to his stuttering makes a big impact. L'ill Man grows and learns during his summer adventure, just as the reader will who goes on the journey with him.
September 25, 2013
Writing for me is like stuttering for Victor. Most of the time I feel lonely and isolated and I'm trying every trick I can to spit out the right words. And I mean spit. The words splatter, sputter, and stutter in a nonsensical way all over the page. The random mishmash starts to take shape after multiple rewrites that usually leaves me frustrated, vulnerable, and exhausted when finished. Writing is difficult for me because it requires focus and my ADHD tendencies get in the way. Exercise is the best trick for me, but it doesn't always work. This train of thought happened when I accidentally spelled "Victor's" name, "victory" which is basically the overarching message: do not give up no matter what problem or suffering you face in life. Whether you stutter, are hyperactive, or have an issue, dealing with it requires action on your part in order to move on and grow as a person.
Eleven-year-old Victor suffers from stuttering to the point that he can't talk. Most words are impossible for him to utter. When he takes on his best friend, Rat's, paper route he is showing courage and kindness. Victor is an amazing pitcher with a fastball that no one can match in middle school. When he splits Rat's lip who was catching for him as a result of showing off, he agrees to take on Rat's paper route as Rat visits relatives on the farm for the month of July. The thought of talking to customers to collect money terrifies Victor because most don't know how to deal with his disability. He resents that people think he is stupid, try to finish his sentences for him, and act uncomfortable. He learns on the paper route the importance of talking about his problem, not giving up, working hard, and that his suffering can bring inner strength.
When Victor meets Mr. Spiro on the paper route he likes him like Mam because the two look him in the eye and are good listeners. Mam is the black maid and while Victor calls her his best friend, she doesn't always give him satisfying answers about his stuttering. She says its God's plan which doesn't make sense to Victor because it makes God seem cruel. Victor likes Mr. Spiro's honest answers and that he treats Victor's questions with respect which inspires him to ask Mr. Spiro why he stutters. Asking this question is a huge step for Victor for it is his first step toward understanding and facing his problem versus feeling there is something wrong with himself. The author suggests that problems need to be verbalized no matter what they are before a person can tackle them.
The plot is well done and has some complex issues. There is an unhappy housewife, a creepy junkman, a mystery of birth, a philosophical Navy man, and a racially divided South. The plot pulls together these different threads and I only had a minor question regarding why Victor jumped to the conclusion that Mam was injured by a specific person. I thought that if some of the information given later in the story could have been put earlier so as to warrant Victor's suspicions. As is, it felt contrived in order to move the plot forward. The plot's unpredictability kept me flipping the pages. Younger readers might have problems understanding some of the issues and making inferences. One of the characters has an affair and is an alcoholic who is abused. The end suggests some reconciliation. Victor's mom hints they might not have Mam in the future. Perhaps there will be a sequel?
Mr. Spiro's four words: student, servant, seller, seeker are explained in a letter as the "quartering of the soul" and share his philosophy about life. Up to that point Mr. Spiro has made references to philosophers Socrates, Voltaire, and Martin Heidegger who explore theories on profound questions. When Victor and Mr. Spiro discuss Jason and the Argonauts that conversation involves more the philosophical question of universal truths found in fiction versus the actual story of "The Golden Fleece." Mr. Spiro becomes an important mentor and friend to Victor. At the end when he leaves before Victor can ask about his father, Victor is able to answer the question on his own; a symbol that he has grown into an independent thinker. Mr. Spiro wants Victor to embrace those words and give them his own meaning.
To reflect Victor's stuttering the author uses the letters "s" creating sentences such as:
How'd your week go, son?
s-s-s-s Hot. s-s-s-s But okay.
The four words: student, servant, seller, seeker also begin with the letter "s" and reflect Victor's stuttering. In fact, the format of the book cleverly reflects Victor's difficulty with getting words out through the use of extra white space, justified paragraphs, and missing quotation marks with the dialogue. Much of the humor comes from play on words as a result of Victor's disability. He mispronounces his friend Art's name, Rat, and Rat doesn't care. He likes the different words Victor stutters and has his own problems speaking. Although I think it is Art's way of making Victor feel better and make a point that Victor need not take his stuttering so seriously. My favorite is Art or Rat calling "wicker furniture," "wicked furniture." An interesting contrast to Victor's problem is his mother who doesn't understand the meaning of words. When she asks the doctor if Victor's stuttering is "generic," his father interjects that she means "genetic." Later she uses "segregation" when she means "integration" and so on. Victor thinks it might be worse to not understand than not speak.
Victor's internal changes occur on the paper route when he has to deal with a boy, Willie, who steals his newspaper bundle. He picks up a rock and is going to throw it at the back of Willie's head as he's getting away on his bike, until he realizes that it would be much easier doing that than talking to the boy. The next time he sees Willie he courageously walks up to him, shakes his bundle in his face and says it is his. Willie says to take it easy and the two get along afterwards. Victor is learning to handle his own problems and using words to communicate with others. At the end when he stands before the class and tells people he stutters it shows an acceptance of who he is and that he has completely embraced his disability. He has found the inner strength to accept how he is and be vulnerable to others to openly discuss his stutter versus trying to hide it and be negative.
The terrific character development shows different suffering in others as well as Victor. Mam suffers from the loss of someone. I didn't understand why she thought she could take on the villain considering he put her out of commission for several days, but she is portrayed as a strong-willed woman who is fearless. His wealthy mother suffers from not understanding words or her son. She is somewhat shallow in comparison to his loving father and doesn't even know Victor's tastes in food. Mam is his mother figure and he calls her his best friend and usually eats with her versus his parents.
The setting is rooted in the 1950s in Memphis, Tennessee. The Howdy Doody Show, segregation, baseball players, and newspapers show a time before the digital age. The segregation issues are a subplot to Victor's coming of age story and his attempt to overcome his disability. I thought the episode at the zoo was interesting and didn't know photobooths were segregated. The bus situation touches on the slow changes of integration and could be a discussion point regarding Jim Crow laws.
Be sure to read the Author's note at the end that explains the authenticity of Victor's voice. I particularly liked the quote included by James Earl Jones who knew the pain of a stutter and was able to gain control of his speech through hard work and perseverance: "One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter." Writing reviews feels like that at times, especially when I am unfocused. If you met me you wouldn't think I had ADHD. I've learned to live with it and manage it quite well. And even though it is difficult, I like blogging because I can reflect on stories that express truths about human nature and help me grow as a person, as well as, promote excellent stories to students in my job as a librarian. This winner will be easy to book talk. Don't pass this one up!
Eleven-year-old Victor suffers from stuttering to the point that he can't talk. Most words are impossible for him to utter. When he takes on his best friend, Rat's, paper route he is showing courage and kindness. Victor is an amazing pitcher with a fastball that no one can match in middle school. When he splits Rat's lip who was catching for him as a result of showing off, he agrees to take on Rat's paper route as Rat visits relatives on the farm for the month of July. The thought of talking to customers to collect money terrifies Victor because most don't know how to deal with his disability. He resents that people think he is stupid, try to finish his sentences for him, and act uncomfortable. He learns on the paper route the importance of talking about his problem, not giving up, working hard, and that his suffering can bring inner strength.
When Victor meets Mr. Spiro on the paper route he likes him like Mam because the two look him in the eye and are good listeners. Mam is the black maid and while Victor calls her his best friend, she doesn't always give him satisfying answers about his stuttering. She says its God's plan which doesn't make sense to Victor because it makes God seem cruel. Victor likes Mr. Spiro's honest answers and that he treats Victor's questions with respect which inspires him to ask Mr. Spiro why he stutters. Asking this question is a huge step for Victor for it is his first step toward understanding and facing his problem versus feeling there is something wrong with himself. The author suggests that problems need to be verbalized no matter what they are before a person can tackle them.
The plot is well done and has some complex issues. There is an unhappy housewife, a creepy junkman, a mystery of birth, a philosophical Navy man, and a racially divided South. The plot pulls together these different threads and I only had a minor question regarding why Victor jumped to the conclusion that Mam was injured by a specific person. I thought that if some of the information given later in the story could have been put earlier so as to warrant Victor's suspicions. As is, it felt contrived in order to move the plot forward. The plot's unpredictability kept me flipping the pages. Younger readers might have problems understanding some of the issues and making inferences. One of the characters has an affair and is an alcoholic who is abused. The end suggests some reconciliation. Victor's mom hints they might not have Mam in the future. Perhaps there will be a sequel?
Mr. Spiro's four words: student, servant, seller, seeker are explained in a letter as the "quartering of the soul" and share his philosophy about life. Up to that point Mr. Spiro has made references to philosophers Socrates, Voltaire, and Martin Heidegger who explore theories on profound questions. When Victor and Mr. Spiro discuss Jason and the Argonauts that conversation involves more the philosophical question of universal truths found in fiction versus the actual story of "The Golden Fleece." Mr. Spiro becomes an important mentor and friend to Victor. At the end when he leaves before Victor can ask about his father, Victor is able to answer the question on his own; a symbol that he has grown into an independent thinker. Mr. Spiro wants Victor to embrace those words and give them his own meaning.
To reflect Victor's stuttering the author uses the letters "s" creating sentences such as:
How'd your week go, son?
s-s-s-s Hot. s-s-s-s But okay.
The four words: student, servant, seller, seeker also begin with the letter "s" and reflect Victor's stuttering. In fact, the format of the book cleverly reflects Victor's difficulty with getting words out through the use of extra white space, justified paragraphs, and missing quotation marks with the dialogue. Much of the humor comes from play on words as a result of Victor's disability. He mispronounces his friend Art's name, Rat, and Rat doesn't care. He likes the different words Victor stutters and has his own problems speaking. Although I think it is Art's way of making Victor feel better and make a point that Victor need not take his stuttering so seriously. My favorite is Art or Rat calling "wicker furniture," "wicked furniture." An interesting contrast to Victor's problem is his mother who doesn't understand the meaning of words. When she asks the doctor if Victor's stuttering is "generic," his father interjects that she means "genetic." Later she uses "segregation" when she means "integration" and so on. Victor thinks it might be worse to not understand than not speak.
Victor's internal changes occur on the paper route when he has to deal with a boy, Willie, who steals his newspaper bundle. He picks up a rock and is going to throw it at the back of Willie's head as he's getting away on his bike, until he realizes that it would be much easier doing that than talking to the boy. The next time he sees Willie he courageously walks up to him, shakes his bundle in his face and says it is his. Willie says to take it easy and the two get along afterwards. Victor is learning to handle his own problems and using words to communicate with others. At the end when he stands before the class and tells people he stutters it shows an acceptance of who he is and that he has completely embraced his disability. He has found the inner strength to accept how he is and be vulnerable to others to openly discuss his stutter versus trying to hide it and be negative.
The terrific character development shows different suffering in others as well as Victor. Mam suffers from the loss of someone. I didn't understand why she thought she could take on the villain considering he put her out of commission for several days, but she is portrayed as a strong-willed woman who is fearless. His wealthy mother suffers from not understanding words or her son. She is somewhat shallow in comparison to his loving father and doesn't even know Victor's tastes in food. Mam is his mother figure and he calls her his best friend and usually eats with her versus his parents.
The setting is rooted in the 1950s in Memphis, Tennessee. The Howdy Doody Show, segregation, baseball players, and newspapers show a time before the digital age. The segregation issues are a subplot to Victor's coming of age story and his attempt to overcome his disability. I thought the episode at the zoo was interesting and didn't know photobooths were segregated. The bus situation touches on the slow changes of integration and could be a discussion point regarding Jim Crow laws.
Be sure to read the Author's note at the end that explains the authenticity of Victor's voice. I particularly liked the quote included by James Earl Jones who knew the pain of a stutter and was able to gain control of his speech through hard work and perseverance: "One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter." Writing reviews feels like that at times, especially when I am unfocused. If you met me you wouldn't think I had ADHD. I've learned to live with it and manage it quite well. And even though it is difficult, I like blogging because I can reflect on stories that express truths about human nature and help me grow as a person, as well as, promote excellent stories to students in my job as a librarian. This winner will be easy to book talk. Don't pass this one up!
August 19, 2021
"Mr. Spiro smiled another new kind of smile.
Tis rude of me to go out of the country but it's a favorite quote of mine that rings more true in the original French. It translates: Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts." (PG. 63)
"Martin Heidegger. A German philosopher who is still very much with us. He helps us understand existentialism. Something you may want to look at later on in your voyage. Existentialism simply means a person exists as a being because that person alone gives meaning to his or her own life.
I had trouble getting my brain to hold on to that so Mr. Spiro kept on going for me.
A pity that Heidegger fell in with the Nazis. Remember, my young Messenger, that intelligence doesn't always equate to moral actions." (PG. 105)
This was one very quotable book full of many happenings.
Eleven-year-old Victor from Memphis takes on his best friend's paper route in the year 1959. A month of meeting his neighbors and learning to overcome his stuttering struggle is definitely a struggle. He meets drunk housewives, a shady homeless man, and a wonderful friend in the 70-ish age range that opens his mind to the world around him and traveling through books.
It was a fun read. I just didn't understand how he was an only child and his stay-at-home mom ignored him most of the day (didn't cook or clean either) and he was so nonchalant. His Mam (nanny) was more of a mother and father than his parents. It was just the 50's and the mentality of "we have money. What can happen to people like us?" No one talked about important things. Um never mind. This sounds like my house growing up. Lol.... except working immigrant parents but same concept.
YA but very enjoyable.
Tis rude of me to go out of the country but it's a favorite quote of mine that rings more true in the original French. It translates: Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts." (PG. 63)
"Martin Heidegger. A German philosopher who is still very much with us. He helps us understand existentialism. Something you may want to look at later on in your voyage. Existentialism simply means a person exists as a being because that person alone gives meaning to his or her own life.
I had trouble getting my brain to hold on to that so Mr. Spiro kept on going for me.
A pity that Heidegger fell in with the Nazis. Remember, my young Messenger, that intelligence doesn't always equate to moral actions." (PG. 105)
This was one very quotable book full of many happenings.
Eleven-year-old Victor from Memphis takes on his best friend's paper route in the year 1959. A month of meeting his neighbors and learning to overcome his stuttering struggle is definitely a struggle. He meets drunk housewives, a shady homeless man, and a wonderful friend in the 70-ish age range that opens his mind to the world around him and traveling through books.
It was a fun read. I just didn't understand how he was an only child and his stay-at-home mom ignored him most of the day (didn't cook or clean either) and he was so nonchalant. His Mam (nanny) was more of a mother and father than his parents. It was just the 50's and the mentality of "we have money. What can happen to people like us?" No one talked about important things. Um never mind. This sounds like my house growing up. Lol.... except working immigrant parents but same concept.
YA but very enjoyable.
September 11, 2013
I was a little skeptical going into this book. It seems that the new "hit" genre in kid-lit is writing the main character with a disability. The first book I read from this trend is Wonder. Then I read Out of My Mind now Paperboy and Counting by 7's is on my to-read list. Some of these books have been great, all of them have gotten high praise and great reviews. I think one of my biggest complaints with these books (not just disability books) but any book that seems to jump on the bandwagon is that I feel like it is seriously lacking in originality. If one vampire book was a hit, maybe mine will be too! Kids with magical powers who go to wizard school? Great idea, I'll twist it like this and see if it will sell too. You see what I'm saying?
So that is why my skepticism was there when I started this book. I am happy to say that this book did not feel like a "me too" book. I felt that the story line was original and even though the main character had a stutter, that isn't what the book was about. I loved that the story was just about a boy. It could have been any boy, but this boy just happened to have a stutter. I love that the stutter didn't define him or the story.
Maybe the reason the Vince Vawter was able to create such a well crafted story is because the story is more or less about himself. He has a stutter and has been able to overcome it even if he wasn't cured of it.
So many of us have things that we deal with each day in life. We can let them define who we are or we can let them have a backseat and we can define ourselves despite the challenge. Challenges don't always disappear but they can fade into the background. This story captures that well.
Some may complain that certain things were left unanswered. I didn't mind that at all. I felt satisfied that things were settled and moving forward "Little Man" would be just fine.
I see this as a distinguished book and even though I would put it in the same category as Wonder and it may seem redundant to award another book like that an award, I would be happy to see this book win something.
So that is why my skepticism was there when I started this book. I am happy to say that this book did not feel like a "me too" book. I felt that the story line was original and even though the main character had a stutter, that isn't what the book was about. I loved that the story was just about a boy. It could have been any boy, but this boy just happened to have a stutter. I love that the stutter didn't define him or the story.
Maybe the reason the Vince Vawter was able to create such a well crafted story is because the story is more or less about himself. He has a stutter and has been able to overcome it even if he wasn't cured of it.
So many of us have things that we deal with each day in life. We can let them define who we are or we can let them have a backseat and we can define ourselves despite the challenge. Challenges don't always disappear but they can fade into the background. This story captures that well.
Some may complain that certain things were left unanswered. I didn't mind that at all. I felt satisfied that things were settled and moving forward "Little Man" would be just fine.
I see this as a distinguished book and even though I would put it in the same category as Wonder and it may seem redundant to award another book like that an award, I would be happy to see this book win something.
November 1, 2013
Saw this at the library. My dad was a paperboy when he was a kid, and I have fond memories of his stories about peddling papers, so I picked it up and cracked it open. The flap said that the paperboy of the title was a stutterer. My uncle stuttered like hell, all his life. My dad sometimes does, even now. 3 seconds in, I knew I couldn't not read this book.
Our hero (who can't really say his own name but he can say his nickname, Little Man) is not A Kid With A Stammer. He's a kid who plays baseball and who won't smush spiders, and who examines words and their meanings. He's a white kid growing up in Memphis and he's got a black housekeeper/nanny and Elvis gets mentioned and who rides where on busses. There's a woman who's sometimes so drunk she can't reach the table to put her glass down. There's a scary guy, a bad guy, a really good guy (with books!) and some interesting kids. There are some looming unknowns. There is, in short, a LOT going on here, but yeah, the stutter is a huge part of his life because it's between him and the words he wants to use.
Little Man is brave in a way that is easy to overlook. He's introspective. He's got some insights and he's not afraid to ask questions when he gets the opportunity. And, hoo-eee, that arm. I would have liked this book to be longer, I wanted to sit on the porch after the autumnal equinox. I wanted to find out more about most all the characters. I liked it a lot.
Our hero (who can't really say his own name but he can say his nickname, Little Man) is not A Kid With A Stammer. He's a kid who plays baseball and who won't smush spiders, and who examines words and their meanings. He's a white kid growing up in Memphis and he's got a black housekeeper/nanny and Elvis gets mentioned and who rides where on busses. There's a woman who's sometimes so drunk she can't reach the table to put her glass down. There's a scary guy, a bad guy, a really good guy (with books!) and some interesting kids. There are some looming unknowns. There is, in short, a LOT going on here, but yeah, the stutter is a huge part of his life because it's between him and the words he wants to use.
Little Man is brave in a way that is easy to overlook. He's introspective. He's got some insights and he's not afraid to ask questions when he gets the opportunity. And, hoo-eee, that arm. I would have liked this book to be longer, I wanted to sit on the porch after the autumnal equinox. I wanted to find out more about most all the characters. I liked it a lot.
May 12, 2020
I first read this book six or seven years ago and I have yet to meet someone here in Ireland who has also read it. However, when I posted about this on my Instagram account recently, the author commented that it continues to be read in schools across America, which I am delighted to hear. Paperboy is the debut novel by Vince Vawter and is an unforgettable story about an unforgettable 11-year-old boy living in Memphis in the late 1950s.
Our protagonist throws an amazing fastball but he can barely get a sentence together without stuttering. When he takes over his friend's paper route one summer, he knows he'll be forced to communicate with people, and the characters he meets range from a housewife who drinks too much to a retired marine who knows just about everything about everything. After a run-in with the local junk-man, a bully and a thief, the boy's life - and the life of his devoted housekeeper - are put in danger.
This is such a beautiful coming-of-age novel that unfolds against the backdrop of the segregated American South. It is a moving, page-turning story of a boy and his struggle to speak. The characters are well-crafted, the language the same, and it provides a rare and empathetic look at a boy who is dealing with the frustrations of both stuttering and growing up.
Our protagonist throws an amazing fastball but he can barely get a sentence together without stuttering. When he takes over his friend's paper route one summer, he knows he'll be forced to communicate with people, and the characters he meets range from a housewife who drinks too much to a retired marine who knows just about everything about everything. After a run-in with the local junk-man, a bully and a thief, the boy's life - and the life of his devoted housekeeper - are put in danger.
This is such a beautiful coming-of-age novel that unfolds against the backdrop of the segregated American South. It is a moving, page-turning story of a boy and his struggle to speak. The characters are well-crafted, the language the same, and it provides a rare and empathetic look at a boy who is dealing with the frustrations of both stuttering and growing up.
October 12, 2017
This is an exceptional Newberry Award winner about a young boy who stutters and the challenges he faces. The story centers around a summer where Little Man substitutes on a paper route while a friend is on a month-long visit to a farm. It is an eventful month for Little Man as he makes new friends and builds confidence. This summer truly changed his life.
I won't soon forget this novel as I loved the characters - especially Little Man, Mr. Spiro, and Mam.
There are many lessons to be learned from this and it is very suited to impressionable young readers. Loved it!
I won't soon forget this novel as I loved the characters - especially Little Man, Mr. Spiro, and Mam.
There are many lessons to be learned from this and it is very suited to impressionable young readers. Loved it!
January 8, 2022
Fiction, or nonfiction? Paperboy, Vince Vawter's debut novel, certainly has elements of both. Set in 1959 Memphis, Tennessee, the story is that of an eleven-year-old struggling to express himself in a world that often disregards him because of his severe stutter. His speech therapist has suggested a few simple tricks to overcome the mental blockage when he stutters, but the boy has tried to limit his exposure to strangers; that is, until the summer he agrees to take over his friend Rat's paper route while Rat is vacationing with cousins for a month. Chucking newspapers onto porches doesn't demand much social interaction, but the boy dreads the end of each week, when he'll be expected to collect payment from customers on his route. What if he gets hung up on a tricky consonant and finds himself paralyzed mid-sentence? What if someone asks his name, which is almost impossible for him to say out loud because of the letter "V" that begins his first and last names? He calls his own best friend "Rat" because it's easier to say than "Art", but strangers will be less understanding of the peculiar mechanics he uses to avoid stuttering. He relies on "Gentle Air" as much as possible, pushing out a quiet "s-s-s-s" sound to prime the pump ahead of problematic syllables, but the paper route is becoming a source of anxiety even before his first day on the job.
His parents spend a lot of time out of the house, but the boy has Mam to take care of him. A colored lady in the 1950s American South, Mam isn't usually allowed to ride in the front of the public bus, but people overlook such things as long as she's with the boy. Mam loves him like a mother but can't shield him from potential problems on his paper route, which he gamely navigates each day he fills in for Rat. After a near disastrous verbal misunderstanding at Mrs. Worthington's house, he forms a fascination for the beautiful young woman, even if she consumes too much alcohol and quarrels loudly with her husband and another man who drops by occasionally. The boy senses that Mrs. Worthington is profoundly sad, but he can't do much other than sympathize; he labors to stutter out a few nice words when possible, but it's best not to push his luck. The other customer on his route who stands out in the boy's mind is Mr. Constantine Spiro, a man of easy, articulate speech. Mr. Spiro doesn't ridicule him for his stutter; the man is an endless source of soothing remedies for the common trouble spots that stymie the boy's speech. Week after week, the boy looks forward to interacting with Mrs. Worthington and Mr. Spiro at collection time, for entirely different reasons. He's having a decent summer pitching for his baseball team and learning from Mr. Spiro, but what will happen when Rat returns and takes back the paper route?
The neighborhood seems safe, but Mam distrusts Ara T, the junkman. He wheels his dilapidated cart around, picking up stray materials to take home and sell, but mostly leaves the boy alone. Mam must have had some nasty encounters with him in the past, but she's tightlipped about it when the boy asks. His first bad interaction with Ara T comes after he asks the junkman to sharpen a knife for him to cut the cord on his bundles of newspapers. Ara T accepts the job but then refuses to return the knife, and the boy is afraid to tell Mam. The paper route has done much to teach the boy responsibility and self-reliance, forcing him to interact with strangers even though he'd prefer to avoid them; it's also helping him learn to stand up to antagonistic people, but Ara T is no harmless bully. He's a threat to anyone who crosses him, and now he's armed with a sharp new knife. For the summer to truly be a success, the boy needs to stand up to Ara T despite the perils of doing so. It's the only way he'll gain permanent confidence in a world as full of Ara Ts as it is people like Mr. Spiro.
One of the hardest parts of life is grappling with your own areas of weakness, especially one as obvious as a severe stutter. Most people the boy meets dismiss him as retarded because of his struggle to speak, but he's a actually a superb communicator. He writes with elegance and advanced vocabulary, expressing his mind better than most kids his age; in fact, he's a grade ahead in school because of his natural intelligence. How frustrating to be witty and smart yet have most of it trapped in your brain, unable to break free of the mental barriers that grow more daunting with every failed attempt to crash through them. You have well-formed opinions on any number of subjects but are considered a simpleton because you can't voice your thoughts as most people can. Overcoming such obstacles is a maddeningly slow process, and a boy who can eventually win that war is a person of class and character most grownups can only hope to emulate. This is the world of Vince Vawter, author of Paperboy, a world where his own life story and that of young Victor Vollmer III blur together in these pages so there's no separating them. Fiction, or nonfiction? Mr. Spiro has an intriguing response when the boy asks him a similar question. He says that when it comes to "fiction or nonfiction...there is no difference between the two in the world I inhabit." But surely they aren't the same, the boy manages to say. "s-s-s-s-But fiction is a story and s-s-s-s-nonfiction is the s-s-s-s-truth." Mr. Spiro's answer: "I contend that one is likely to find more truth in fiction. A good painting after all is more truthful than a photograph." Excellent literature always imparts truth, and Victor Vollmer's journey to becoming Vince Vawter is a substantial source of it.
Paperboy is beautifully written. It thrusts us directly into the boy's experience, the fear of getting caught in the web of his own words and being unable to extricate himself. The author's ability to translate this experience for the reader is remarkable. Maybe I should rate Paperboy three stars, but I can't quite bring myself to round my two-and-a-half-star rating up instead of down. The climax lacks potency, and the lesson that Mr. Spiro is building toward seems to peter out into ambiguity as the narrative draws to a close. It wouldn't have taken much to raise my rating, but Paperboy is a train that seemed fully capable of cresting that hill, only to barely miss the grade at the end. Nonetheless, it's good; I'm not surprised the American Library Association awarded Vince Vawter a 2014 Newbery Honor for his first book. If you're interested in a satisfying read that makes you think, look no further than Paperboy.
His parents spend a lot of time out of the house, but the boy has Mam to take care of him. A colored lady in the 1950s American South, Mam isn't usually allowed to ride in the front of the public bus, but people overlook such things as long as she's with the boy. Mam loves him like a mother but can't shield him from potential problems on his paper route, which he gamely navigates each day he fills in for Rat. After a near disastrous verbal misunderstanding at Mrs. Worthington's house, he forms a fascination for the beautiful young woman, even if she consumes too much alcohol and quarrels loudly with her husband and another man who drops by occasionally. The boy senses that Mrs. Worthington is profoundly sad, but he can't do much other than sympathize; he labors to stutter out a few nice words when possible, but it's best not to push his luck. The other customer on his route who stands out in the boy's mind is Mr. Constantine Spiro, a man of easy, articulate speech. Mr. Spiro doesn't ridicule him for his stutter; the man is an endless source of soothing remedies for the common trouble spots that stymie the boy's speech. Week after week, the boy looks forward to interacting with Mrs. Worthington and Mr. Spiro at collection time, for entirely different reasons. He's having a decent summer pitching for his baseball team and learning from Mr. Spiro, but what will happen when Rat returns and takes back the paper route?
The neighborhood seems safe, but Mam distrusts Ara T, the junkman. He wheels his dilapidated cart around, picking up stray materials to take home and sell, but mostly leaves the boy alone. Mam must have had some nasty encounters with him in the past, but she's tightlipped about it when the boy asks. His first bad interaction with Ara T comes after he asks the junkman to sharpen a knife for him to cut the cord on his bundles of newspapers. Ara T accepts the job but then refuses to return the knife, and the boy is afraid to tell Mam. The paper route has done much to teach the boy responsibility and self-reliance, forcing him to interact with strangers even though he'd prefer to avoid them; it's also helping him learn to stand up to antagonistic people, but Ara T is no harmless bully. He's a threat to anyone who crosses him, and now he's armed with a sharp new knife. For the summer to truly be a success, the boy needs to stand up to Ara T despite the perils of doing so. It's the only way he'll gain permanent confidence in a world as full of Ara Ts as it is people like Mr. Spiro.
One of the hardest parts of life is grappling with your own areas of weakness, especially one as obvious as a severe stutter. Most people the boy meets dismiss him as retarded because of his struggle to speak, but he's a actually a superb communicator. He writes with elegance and advanced vocabulary, expressing his mind better than most kids his age; in fact, he's a grade ahead in school because of his natural intelligence. How frustrating to be witty and smart yet have most of it trapped in your brain, unable to break free of the mental barriers that grow more daunting with every failed attempt to crash through them. You have well-formed opinions on any number of subjects but are considered a simpleton because you can't voice your thoughts as most people can. Overcoming such obstacles is a maddeningly slow process, and a boy who can eventually win that war is a person of class and character most grownups can only hope to emulate. This is the world of Vince Vawter, author of Paperboy, a world where his own life story and that of young Victor Vollmer III blur together in these pages so there's no separating them. Fiction, or nonfiction? Mr. Spiro has an intriguing response when the boy asks him a similar question. He says that when it comes to "fiction or nonfiction...there is no difference between the two in the world I inhabit." But surely they aren't the same, the boy manages to say. "s-s-s-s-But fiction is a story and s-s-s-s-nonfiction is the s-s-s-s-truth." Mr. Spiro's answer: "I contend that one is likely to find more truth in fiction. A good painting after all is more truthful than a photograph." Excellent literature always imparts truth, and Victor Vollmer's journey to becoming Vince Vawter is a substantial source of it.
Paperboy is beautifully written. It thrusts us directly into the boy's experience, the fear of getting caught in the web of his own words and being unable to extricate himself. The author's ability to translate this experience for the reader is remarkable. Maybe I should rate Paperboy three stars, but I can't quite bring myself to round my two-and-a-half-star rating up instead of down. The climax lacks potency, and the lesson that Mr. Spiro is building toward seems to peter out into ambiguity as the narrative draws to a close. It wouldn't have taken much to raise my rating, but Paperboy is a train that seemed fully capable of cresting that hill, only to barely miss the grade at the end. Nonetheless, it's good; I'm not surprised the American Library Association awarded Vince Vawter a 2014 Newbery Honor for his first book. If you're interested in a satisfying read that makes you think, look no further than Paperboy.
August 22, 2025
Knyga iš penktokams rekomenduojamos perskaityti literatūros.
Labai patiko. Apie berniuką, kuris stipriai mikčiojo ir kaip su tuo tvarkėsi.
Puiki istorija, mokanti empatijos ir atjautos.
Vienintelis dalykas, kas glumino, kad visoje knygoje nėra kablelių. Man buvo labai keista ir neįprasta...
"Daug svarbiau yra tai ką sakau negu tai kaip sakau."
"Ir mano siela nemikčioja." 💚
Labai patiko. Apie berniuką, kuris stipriai mikčiojo ir kaip su tuo tvarkėsi.
Puiki istorija, mokanti empatijos ir atjautos.
Vienintelis dalykas, kas glumino, kad visoje knygoje nėra kablelių. Man buvo labai keista ir neįprasta...
"Daug svarbiau yra tai ką sakau negu tai kaip sakau."
"Ir mano siela nemikčioja." 💚
November 8, 2022
I gave this three stars ... as a book for an adult to read. I wouldn't recommend this for kids.
Cleanliness:
Children's Bad Words
Mild Obscenities & Substitutions - 10 Incidents: stupid, h*ll
Name Calling - 13 Incidents: snake, retard, b*tch (several times), colored, *ss, skinny-*ss, stuttering poet, stuttering dummy, n*gg*r (implied), old woman,
Scatological Terms - 3 Incidents: bl**dy (as in lots of blood)
Religious Profanity - 2 Incidents: Law me (Lord)
Religious & Supernatural - 8 Incidents: There’s a man who makes a living by telling the future. A boy is upset that God made him have trouble talking. “A god who would play dirty tricks on a kid like that didn’t know very much about being a god.” Existentialism is explained briefly. A few philosophical ideas are thrown into the conversation. Haints (ghosts) are discussed. A boy compares his parent’s church with his black maid’s church. “I know a kid is supposed to respect grown-ups who make the rules and also respect God who knows how everything is supposed to work but I couldn’t get over the feeling that neither one of them was doing a very good job.” A boy struggles with praying and “finally gave up on God helping me.” “Buried so deep the Hounds of Hell can’t dig it up.”
Romance Related - 18 Incidents: A man is over at a woman’s house (it is implied that they’re having an affair). When a little boy knocks at the door (it can be implied he’s interrupting them having sex) the man lies, saying he’s a cousin. A boy comes to a woman’s porch and finds her passed out from drinking. He watches/looks at her and is kind of attracted to her beauty. Her coat is open again. (This could be infatuation/lust as he thinks about her and her open coat often). A boy decides to sneak into his mom’s room and look into her private box. He discovers that his dad isn’t really his biological father (it’s implied she was raped). The boy has many questions and thinks a lot about his real father. “If some other man and my mother got together to make me …” The characters are watching a movie where a man is in love with a married woman. A boy starts dating a girl. A woman isn’t appropriately covered with clothes. A woman’s coat flops open, implying she’s revealing more than she should. “I didn’t usually pay much attention to dresses that ladies wore but this one looked special the way the wide belt fastened tight around her middle like it was dividing her into two parts.” LUST: A boy thinks back to the woman he saw who couldn’t keep her coat closed (implied she showed at least some cleavage). It’s one of the things that keeps him laying awake at night. “When he came out of his mammy somebody yelled to get a clean flour sack.” GRAPHIC: “I refolded some papers that weren’t as tight as Dick’s hatband. I asked my mother once who Dick was when she talked about his hatband but she never would tell me.” Implied penis and condom. A boy goes into a woman’s house who is drunk. The following scene is somewhat awkward as he seems to be attracted to her and notices her hair, lips, etc. LUST: “Mrs. Worthington and her red hair. That was the dessert of my thinking.” LUST: A boy wants to ‘look at [a woman] again up close.” Mentions a boy was shirtless. “I thought Mrs. Worthington the prettiest woman I had ever seen.” LUST: A boy thinks about a woman.
Attitudes/Disobedience - 22 Incidents: A boy is told not to hang around a man (who’s vicious). He disobeys several times. The main character has a stuttering/speech problem. Kids in his class snicker at him when he tries to speak. A boy lies many times throughout the book. A boy is jealous that his friend is in the country and he lies to disguise his feelings. A boy is angry and screams words in his head. A boy decides to sneak into his mom’s room and look into her private box. He discovers that his dad isn’t really his biological father (it’s implied she was raped). The boy has many questions and thinks a lot about his real father. A son and mother don’t really get along: “If some other man and my mother got together to make me then why did I like being around my father more than my mother?” A boy is angry and wants to punch the person who beat up his maid.
A boy is mad and thinks that “a dirt clod upside [a boy’s] head or a rock to smash the screen would make him forget about television for a while.” A boy didn’t come home early enough like he was supposed to. A boy lies about a man he met, wanting to keep him a secret. So he says he has an imaginary friend; a friend “in his head.” A boy lies about where he left his stuff. He left it at a place he was forbade to go. Several boys smush spiders for fun and tease another boy for not doing it with them. A boy makes up a story so that he and his black maid can take a picture together. A boy gets bullied. He thinks about hitting the bully with a rock. A boy feels like being a smart mouth and gets angry. A boy is very angry so chucks rocks at the moon. A boy disobeys. He is not punished and decides he’s following his maid whether she wants him to or not. A boy disobeys and does not stay where he was told to stay. As a result, he almost gets killed and witnesses a murder. A boy eavesdrops even though he said he wouldn’t.
Conversation Topics - 18 Incidents: The main character in this story has a speech/stuttering impediment. This book takes place during racial segregation in America. The boy’s maid is black and he witnesses several racial injustices. Mentions dog turds. A woman is drunk and has been drinking whiskey. (She and a few other characters are drunk several times throughout the book).
Tobacco, cigarettes whiskey, wine and alcohol are mentioned several times throughout the book (not positively). A man steals a mop (he steals many items throughout the book). A boy meets a man who is philosophical and teaches him different ideas. “If you are asking if the story of Jason and the Argonauts is fiction or nonfiction, I will answer that there is no difference between the two in the world I inhabit.” They discuss “truth.” A boy remembers going to see a hypnotist. A mother lies to her son, saying she gave up smoking. A man invites a boy into his house and says, “I know it might be against newspaper regulations or against your parent’s wishes [to go into a stranger’s house] but I can assure you it is proper in this context.” (Though nothing happens and he becomes a good friend, this is an odd sentence for a children’s book). A boy goes into a woman’s house who is drunk. The following scene is somewhat awkward as he seems to be attracted to her and notices her hair, lips, etc. A boy doesn’t understand why his black maid has to ride in the back of a bus.
A kid is taunting a giraffe and when a black lady interferes, he calls her a “n*gg*r” (implied but enough details given). Snuff: A woman opens “her handbag and takes a pinch from a bottle of Garrett’s with her thumb and finger and puts it in her lower lip.” Mentions Juke Joints. A boy decides that even though the man who acts as father didn’t biologically have him, he owes him a lot for parenting him. There is a discussion about how schools will no longer be segregated.
Parent Takeaway
As seen from the report, there are numerous adult themes running through the story and a bit of strong language; particularly for a book recommended for children age ten. Because the main character has a speech impediment (stutters), his maid rarely punishes him for wrong doing. He lies often and as an indirect consequence of his disobedience, he and his maid almost get murdered. He also has some issues with God, although in the end and after his maid has described her faith in God, he decides to give God another try. As the boy grapples with understanding so many things he is learning of or witnessing, the author introduces an older character that tries, through philosophy, to help the boy's thought processes.
The over all theme of the story is to notice the people around you and to try, even if it's small, to make each person's life just a little better. The boy receives four words from the old man that he doesn't understand but wishes to learn and incorporate into his life. The words are: Student, Servant, Seller, and Seeker, indicating we should all practice being each one of these.
**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide a Cleanliness Report, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!
So Follow or Friend me here on GoodReads! And be sure to check out my bio page to learn a little about me and the Picture Book/Chapter Book Calendars I sell on Etsy!
Cleanliness:
Children's Bad Words
Mild Obscenities & Substitutions - 10 Incidents: stupid, h*ll
Name Calling - 13 Incidents: snake, retard, b*tch (several times), colored, *ss, skinny-*ss, stuttering poet, stuttering dummy, n*gg*r (implied), old woman,
Scatological Terms - 3 Incidents: bl**dy (as in lots of blood)
Religious Profanity - 2 Incidents: Law me (Lord)
Religious & Supernatural - 8 Incidents: There’s a man who makes a living by telling the future. A boy is upset that God made him have trouble talking. “A god who would play dirty tricks on a kid like that didn’t know very much about being a god.” Existentialism is explained briefly. A few philosophical ideas are thrown into the conversation. Haints (ghosts) are discussed. A boy compares his parent’s church with his black maid’s church. “I know a kid is supposed to respect grown-ups who make the rules and also respect God who knows how everything is supposed to work but I couldn’t get over the feeling that neither one of them was doing a very good job.” A boy struggles with praying and “finally gave up on God helping me.” “Buried so deep the Hounds of Hell can’t dig it up.”
Romance Related - 18 Incidents: A man is over at a woman’s house (it is implied that they’re having an affair). When a little boy knocks at the door (it can be implied he’s interrupting them having sex) the man lies, saying he’s a cousin. A boy comes to a woman’s porch and finds her passed out from drinking. He watches/looks at her and is kind of attracted to her beauty. Her coat is open again. (This could be infatuation/lust as he thinks about her and her open coat often). A boy decides to sneak into his mom’s room and look into her private box. He discovers that his dad isn’t really his biological father (it’s implied she was raped). The boy has many questions and thinks a lot about his real father. “If some other man and my mother got together to make me …” The characters are watching a movie where a man is in love with a married woman. A boy starts dating a girl. A woman isn’t appropriately covered with clothes. A woman’s coat flops open, implying she’s revealing more than she should. “I didn’t usually pay much attention to dresses that ladies wore but this one looked special the way the wide belt fastened tight around her middle like it was dividing her into two parts.” LUST: A boy thinks back to the woman he saw who couldn’t keep her coat closed (implied she showed at least some cleavage). It’s one of the things that keeps him laying awake at night. “When he came out of his mammy somebody yelled to get a clean flour sack.” GRAPHIC: “I refolded some papers that weren’t as tight as Dick’s hatband. I asked my mother once who Dick was when she talked about his hatband but she never would tell me.” Implied penis and condom. A boy goes into a woman’s house who is drunk. The following scene is somewhat awkward as he seems to be attracted to her and notices her hair, lips, etc. LUST: “Mrs. Worthington and her red hair. That was the dessert of my thinking.” LUST: A boy wants to ‘look at [a woman] again up close.” Mentions a boy was shirtless. “I thought Mrs. Worthington the prettiest woman I had ever seen.” LUST: A boy thinks about a woman.
Attitudes/Disobedience - 22 Incidents: A boy is told not to hang around a man (who’s vicious). He disobeys several times. The main character has a stuttering/speech problem. Kids in his class snicker at him when he tries to speak. A boy lies many times throughout the book. A boy is jealous that his friend is in the country and he lies to disguise his feelings. A boy is angry and screams words in his head. A boy decides to sneak into his mom’s room and look into her private box. He discovers that his dad isn’t really his biological father (it’s implied she was raped). The boy has many questions and thinks a lot about his real father. A son and mother don’t really get along: “If some other man and my mother got together to make me then why did I like being around my father more than my mother?” A boy is angry and wants to punch the person who beat up his maid.
A boy is mad and thinks that “a dirt clod upside [a boy’s] head or a rock to smash the screen would make him forget about television for a while.” A boy didn’t come home early enough like he was supposed to. A boy lies about a man he met, wanting to keep him a secret. So he says he has an imaginary friend; a friend “in his head.” A boy lies about where he left his stuff. He left it at a place he was forbade to go. Several boys smush spiders for fun and tease another boy for not doing it with them. A boy makes up a story so that he and his black maid can take a picture together. A boy gets bullied. He thinks about hitting the bully with a rock. A boy feels like being a smart mouth and gets angry. A boy is very angry so chucks rocks at the moon. A boy disobeys. He is not punished and decides he’s following his maid whether she wants him to or not. A boy disobeys and does not stay where he was told to stay. As a result, he almost gets killed and witnesses a murder. A boy eavesdrops even though he said he wouldn’t.
Conversation Topics - 18 Incidents: The main character in this story has a speech/stuttering impediment. This book takes place during racial segregation in America. The boy’s maid is black and he witnesses several racial injustices. Mentions dog turds. A woman is drunk and has been drinking whiskey. (She and a few other characters are drunk several times throughout the book).
Tobacco, cigarettes whiskey, wine and alcohol are mentioned several times throughout the book (not positively). A man steals a mop (he steals many items throughout the book). A boy meets a man who is philosophical and teaches him different ideas. “If you are asking if the story of Jason and the Argonauts is fiction or nonfiction, I will answer that there is no difference between the two in the world I inhabit.” They discuss “truth.” A boy remembers going to see a hypnotist. A mother lies to her son, saying she gave up smoking. A man invites a boy into his house and says, “I know it might be against newspaper regulations or against your parent’s wishes [to go into a stranger’s house] but I can assure you it is proper in this context.” (Though nothing happens and he becomes a good friend, this is an odd sentence for a children’s book). A boy goes into a woman’s house who is drunk. The following scene is somewhat awkward as he seems to be attracted to her and notices her hair, lips, etc. A boy doesn’t understand why his black maid has to ride in the back of a bus.
A kid is taunting a giraffe and when a black lady interferes, he calls her a “n*gg*r” (implied but enough details given). Snuff: A woman opens “her handbag and takes a pinch from a bottle of Garrett’s with her thumb and finger and puts it in her lower lip.” Mentions Juke Joints. A boy decides that even though the man who acts as father didn’t biologically have him, he owes him a lot for parenting him. There is a discussion about how schools will no longer be segregated.
Parent Takeaway
As seen from the report, there are numerous adult themes running through the story and a bit of strong language; particularly for a book recommended for children age ten. Because the main character has a speech impediment (stutters), his maid rarely punishes him for wrong doing. He lies often and as an indirect consequence of his disobedience, he and his maid almost get murdered. He also has some issues with God, although in the end and after his maid has described her faith in God, he decides to give God another try. As the boy grapples with understanding so many things he is learning of or witnessing, the author introduces an older character that tries, through philosophy, to help the boy's thought processes.
The over all theme of the story is to notice the people around you and to try, even if it's small, to make each person's life just a little better. The boy receives four words from the old man that he doesn't understand but wishes to learn and incorporate into his life. The words are: Student, Servant, Seller, and Seeker, indicating we should all practice being each one of these.
**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide a Cleanliness Report, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!
So Follow or Friend me here on GoodReads! And be sure to check out my bio page to learn a little about me and the Picture Book/Chapter Book Calendars I sell on Etsy!
December 12, 2012
Wow! Excited that Vince is going to be on Nerdy Book Club in May. This book really opened my eyes to the life of a child that stutters.
July 5, 2014
Beautifully written by a first-time author/retired newspaper man who stutters, Vince Vawter knows much about what he writes. You see, he grew up in the segregated South (Memphis, specifically). A lover of words, much like "Little Man", the main character (loved the photo of Vawter at the end of the book with his prized typewriter), the ebb and flow of the written word both confound as well as delight them both.
As a Language Arts teacher, I especially liked the literary and logophile references thanks to the Merchant Marine newspaper client with whom Little Man strikes a friendship. The other adult relationships are equally rich and layered: Mam and her maternal guidance, the bored and neglected housewife who drinks too much (and seemingly is inept at keeping her housecoat closed all the way...), and the homeless neighborhood junkman/petty thief who intrigues our main character, but who eventually he becomes frightened of. I found Little Man's parents to be just as interesting, although we don't see them much throughout the plot. The loving stepdad and the mom who tries to reach for the right word but nearly always fails were interesting secondary characters; in a middle grade book, we nearly always see the parents as vital characters. This was an interesting choice and it worked in the arc of the story. I loved how the couple regularly dined out on Fridays, but always were connected to their son.
I marked a Goodreads shelf as "guy read" for the simple fact that I can see my own boys loving this story. One of my sons is roughly the same age as the main character, and another son stutters and loves to play baseball. But the great thing about middle grade lit. is that girls are open to reading books with guy main characters, although sadly, boys aren't nearly as open to a book if a girl is the main character. Therefore, Paperboy would be a welcome addition on any reader's shelf. As a matter of fact, many adult readers would enjoy this tale.
For a middle grade novel to reflect the social times so well, to tie up loose ends so neatly (but not annoyingly so), and to span only one month in time is no small feat. I loved his "hook" and can see Paperboy play a vital role in teaching ways readers entice their audience to stay with them:
"I'm typing about the stabbing for a good reason. I can't talk.
Without stuttering."
Highly enjoyed.
Highly recommended.
As a Language Arts teacher, I especially liked the literary and logophile references thanks to the Merchant Marine newspaper client with whom Little Man strikes a friendship. The other adult relationships are equally rich and layered: Mam and her maternal guidance, the bored and neglected housewife who drinks too much (and seemingly is inept at keeping her housecoat closed all the way...), and the homeless neighborhood junkman/petty thief who intrigues our main character, but who eventually he becomes frightened of. I found Little Man's parents to be just as interesting, although we don't see them much throughout the plot. The loving stepdad and the mom who tries to reach for the right word but nearly always fails were interesting secondary characters; in a middle grade book, we nearly always see the parents as vital characters. This was an interesting choice and it worked in the arc of the story. I loved how the couple regularly dined out on Fridays, but always were connected to their son.
I marked a Goodreads shelf as "guy read" for the simple fact that I can see my own boys loving this story. One of my sons is roughly the same age as the main character, and another son stutters and loves to play baseball. But the great thing about middle grade lit. is that girls are open to reading books with guy main characters, although sadly, boys aren't nearly as open to a book if a girl is the main character. Therefore, Paperboy would be a welcome addition on any reader's shelf. As a matter of fact, many adult readers would enjoy this tale.
For a middle grade novel to reflect the social times so well, to tie up loose ends so neatly (but not annoyingly so), and to span only one month in time is no small feat. I loved his "hook" and can see Paperboy play a vital role in teaching ways readers entice their audience to stay with them:
"I'm typing about the stabbing for a good reason. I can't talk.
Without stuttering."
Highly enjoyed.
Highly recommended.
November 26, 2013
Paperboy had me at hello. I loved, loved, loved, loved, REALLY LOVED this one. Yes, I'm going to gush about how wonderful and just-right this one is.
Paperboy is set in Memphis, Tennessee, in July of 1959. The narrator is a young boy (11, I think?) who stutters. He doesn't want stuttering to define him. He doesn't think that's fair. He is good at many, many things, like baseball. He is GREAT at baseball. He is good at typing, at writing. He loves words. But his stutter keeps him from loving speaking words aloud. It keeps him nervous and awkward around new people or strangers, people he feels will judge him based on his stutter alone, who will assume that his inability to speak clearly means he's unable to THINK clearly too.
So. The month of July will prove challenging to him for he has agreed to take over his best friend's paper route. Oh, he's not worried about the delivering part. He knows he's got that handled. He's worried about Fridays, about the day when he'll have to go to the door and TALK to people and ask for the money owed. You might think, in some ways, that it would be the first week that would be the most difficult, and that, all other weeks would just be easy after that initial effort. That is only partly true. He does make a friend, a wonderful friend. And he does learn a few life lessons that help him grow up a bit and cope a bit. And, I suppose, you could say that his perspective expands a bit in that he sees that the world is full of people who have problems, who have issues; that every person is dealing with something, struggling with something.
I think I loved the narrator best. The book is in his own words, he's recounting these events. There is something in the narrator's life, a secret that he discovers one day, and it could potentially be big and disturbing--just as there are other events in the novel that could be BIG AND DISTURBING. But this one thing that he wrestles with on his own, quietly meditating on it perhaps, was handled so tenderly and lovingly that it just worked for me. It made a novel that I already LOVED, LOVED, LOVED that much more wow-worthy.
I also loved other characters in this novel. Characters that might have seemed minor, but, were anything but. Characters like Mam, Rat (Art), Mr. Spiro, and, to a certain extent his Dad.
Paperboy is set in Memphis, Tennessee, in July of 1959. The narrator is a young boy (11, I think?) who stutters. He doesn't want stuttering to define him. He doesn't think that's fair. He is good at many, many things, like baseball. He is GREAT at baseball. He is good at typing, at writing. He loves words. But his stutter keeps him from loving speaking words aloud. It keeps him nervous and awkward around new people or strangers, people he feels will judge him based on his stutter alone, who will assume that his inability to speak clearly means he's unable to THINK clearly too.
So. The month of July will prove challenging to him for he has agreed to take over his best friend's paper route. Oh, he's not worried about the delivering part. He knows he's got that handled. He's worried about Fridays, about the day when he'll have to go to the door and TALK to people and ask for the money owed. You might think, in some ways, that it would be the first week that would be the most difficult, and that, all other weeks would just be easy after that initial effort. That is only partly true. He does make a friend, a wonderful friend. And he does learn a few life lessons that help him grow up a bit and cope a bit. And, I suppose, you could say that his perspective expands a bit in that he sees that the world is full of people who have problems, who have issues; that every person is dealing with something, struggling with something.
I think I loved the narrator best. The book is in his own words, he's recounting these events. There is something in the narrator's life, a secret that he discovers one day, and it could potentially be big and disturbing--just as there are other events in the novel that could be BIG AND DISTURBING. But this one thing that he wrestles with on his own, quietly meditating on it perhaps, was handled so tenderly and lovingly that it just worked for me. It made a novel that I already LOVED, LOVED, LOVED that much more wow-worthy.
I also loved other characters in this novel. Characters that might have seemed minor, but, were anything but. Characters like Mam, Rat (Art), Mr. Spiro, and, to a certain extent his Dad.
March 12, 2021
Как заика со стажем могу сказать, что изнутри в детстве всё именно так.
+ одна звезда за достоверность
+ одна звезда за достоверность
February 17, 2014
This book was a chore to get through. I would have quit after a dozen pages of it hadn't of picked up an honor. Will someone please explaining to me the elements of the writing that they find distinguished. Very GCF.
June 19, 2019
A book for children, not my thing.
April 19, 2025
مهمترین نکتهای که این کتاب رو برای من خیلی لذتبخش کرد و همچنین خیلی دردناک بود آشنا شدن با دنیای افرادی بود که دچار لکنت زبان هستن. قبل از خوندن کتاب من هیچ درکی نداشتم از سختیها و چالشهایی که این افراد حتی برای تلفظ اسمشون باهاش درگیر میشن📖
کتاب برای ردهبندی سنی نوجوانانه ولی فکر کنم توی هر سنی که باشیم از خوندنش لذت میبریم😊
کتاب برای ردهبندی سنی نوجوانانه ولی فکر کنم توی هر سنی که باشیم از خوندنش لذت میبریم😊
August 15, 2013
Do you remember Darth Vadar – specifically the voice of Darth Vadar? Here is a link to a video some of his best quotes. The man behind the voice is James Earl Jones and what you may not know is that he barely spoke for eight years. His stuttering problem was so severe that he chose not to talk, rather than deal with the hardships of stuttering. The book Paperboy is set in Memphis in 1959, and 11 year old Victor, has a similar problem to James Earl Jones.
Once I started Paperboy, I couldn’t put it down. Paperboy is about stuttering. It’s also about facing problems head-on as a kid and dealing with reality. Reality is when you take on your best friend’s paper route, talking to strangers and working through the hardships of not being able to communicate what you really want to say, when you want to say it. If you have ever struggled with stuttering, or know someone who has, then this book will have even deeper meaning for you. Like James Earl Jones, the author Vince Vawter suffered through a stuttering problem in his childhood years. This book is partly his story, and partly the story of a boy you won’t soon forget.
Once I started Paperboy, I couldn’t put it down. Paperboy is about stuttering. It’s also about facing problems head-on as a kid and dealing with reality. Reality is when you take on your best friend’s paper route, talking to strangers and working through the hardships of not being able to communicate what you really want to say, when you want to say it. If you have ever struggled with stuttering, or know someone who has, then this book will have even deeper meaning for you. Like James Earl Jones, the author Vince Vawter suffered through a stuttering problem in his childhood years. This book is partly his story, and partly the story of a boy you won’t soon forget.
October 10, 2014
I absolutely loved this book. It has a To Kill A Mockingbird feel, without being a ripoff. It's genuine and beautiful. I guessed early on that it's based on the author's own childhood. When the paperboy was talking about his name and not being able to say it, it clued me in. I like knowing that it was his own heart that he was pouring out for the readers. I would have voted for this to get the Newberry and not just an Honor book. It's that good.
January 17, 2014
Do I love this book because I grew up in the same time period, because I was a speech pathologist, because I am familiar with the deadly hot summer days of Memphis, or because I admire the gentle souls of the characters who shaped the life of an 11 year old boy learning to be an adult? Hard to say, but Little Man tells his story flawlessly.
May 31, 2023
2 stelute doar pentru ca mi-a zis l-a sfarsit numels lui daca nu zicea primea 1.M-a plictisit enorm,abia,abia am tras de ea sa o citesc
May 2, 2013
Paperboy
is the story of a boy with a debilitating stutter forced to find ways to communicate—against a backdrop of racial bigotry in the summer of 1959 in Memphis. When the 13-year-old stutterer, who can't say his own name, takes over his best friend's newspaper route for a month, he encounters a fleet of life-spinning characters: an alcoholic housewife who attempts to seduce him, a junkman who steals from him, and a kindly Merchant Marine who seems to have all the answers to the boy's unending questions. Accompanying him on his month-long journey is his protector Mam, the family's black housekeeper, who saves the boy from being murdered in the book's climax. Vince Vawter says he wrote the novel because he wanted to explore the loneliness suffered by young people with speech impediments, and to examine a humanity that transcends racial boundaries. In other words, he wanted to tell his story. Vince vowed to become a writer at the age of ten because he was convinced he would never be able to talk. He went on to become an editor and publisher for over forty years with E.W. Scripps newspapers in Memphis, Knoxville, and Evansville, Indiana. The agonizing world of the stutterer has never been examined properly in fiction for young readers.
Paperboy
tells that story.
May 21, 2014
Oh Newbery, I'll never understand you. I just checked and I have to go clear back to 1997 to find a Newbery winner or honor book that I really LOVED ( Belle Prater's Boy ) . I haven't read them all, by any means, but the ones I have read have been kind of blah. This one was good, but I didn't find anything outstanding about it. It felt like it was trying to be too many things. A book about a child with a disability. A book about sports (although that was hardly mentioned - just that the main character loved baseball and had quite an arm). A book about race relations. A book about growing up in the 60's... Now if all of those things had meshed, it would have added up to a really good story, but it was like the author all of a sudden said, "Oh, I'd better put something about race relations in here now", instead of it being seamlessly woven into the story. I enjoyed parts of this book, and it was inspiring that it had a lot to do with the author's real life, but I'm not sure how much it will get checked out in my middle school library.
Areas of concern: A handful of swear words. Scary violence towards the main character and one of his loved ones. A woman who drinks excessively and has a man other than her husband come to her house, and then she gets hit by him.
Areas of concern: A handful of swear words. Scary violence towards the main character and one of his loved ones. A woman who drinks excessively and has a man other than her husband come to her house, and then she gets hit by him.
August 27, 2018
I had never heard of this book, but I found it on a library sale and saw that it had a Newbery Honor, so of course I had to "rescue" it and read it!
What a great book! How did this slip my notice? Once I got started I thought about reading it aloud to my kids, but the style it was written in (short paragraphs ostensibly typed by the main character) made the dialogue a bit confusing. I think it's better to read it for yourself. A few times I had to go back and restart the conversations to figure out who was saying what, or which were the main character's thoughts. Because of his stutter, he thinks a lot of things and hears a lot of things, but speaks much more rarely and shortly. It was easy to determine when he was speaking, but sometimes I got mixed up with his thoughts and what others were saying.
But it was a very interesting look at a summer in the segregated south, and a young man struggling with personal demons and difficulties. I was not at all surprised to come to the end and learn that it was semi-autobiographical.
What a great book! How did this slip my notice? Once I got started I thought about reading it aloud to my kids, but the style it was written in (short paragraphs ostensibly typed by the main character) made the dialogue a bit confusing. I think it's better to read it for yourself. A few times I had to go back and restart the conversations to figure out who was saying what, or which were the main character's thoughts. Because of his stutter, he thinks a lot of things and hears a lot of things, but speaks much more rarely and shortly. It was easy to determine when he was speaking, but sometimes I got mixed up with his thoughts and what others were saying.
But it was a very interesting look at a summer in the segregated south, and a young man struggling with personal demons and difficulties. I was not at all surprised to come to the end and learn that it was semi-autobiographical.
April 19, 2021
It was very mature and to understand it you had to comprehend well.
August 7, 2013
Summary (Amazon.com)
This is a coming of age story that takes place in Memphis in the sixties. The book opens with the main character telling us about himself and his life as a stutterer. Speaking is, at best, a chore, and sometimes all but impossible. Because of his speech problems, few people can - or bother to - understand him. One such person is "Mam", the black maid who came to live with the family when he was five, and the other is his best friend "Rat".
But the big challenge comes during the summer when he agrees to take over Rat's paper route for the month of July while Rat visits his cousins' farm. Vince knows he can handle the route itself - he's the best thrower in town, which is why he plays pitcher. It's the collecting part that's got him worried. He sure hopes people put their envelopes on the door so he won't have to stumble over "ninety-five cents".
But it turns out that the paper route leads to some interesting developments. Since he has to talk, he finds himself having more encounters with actual people - and it's not all bad. There's the drunk but beautiful Mrs. Worthington who arouses in Vince a mixture of youthful amore and pitiable concern. There's TV boy who's always glued to the set every time Vince comes around. And then there's Mr. Spiro, the third person in Vince's life who understands him.
Underneath this plot runs a subplot involving Ara T, the local "junkman" who collect metal and other usable objects in the alleys behind the house. Mam has warned Vince to stay away from Ara T, but Victor is drawn to him anyway. No one can sharpen a knife like Ara T, and Vince needs a sharp knife to cut the cord on his papers every day. Things take a more sinister twist when Ara T refuses to give the knife back, and eventually Mam gets involved. Victor and Mam find themselves in one of the seediest parts of Memphis tracking down Ara T, and we learn that he and Mam have a long history.
My Comments
The author of Paperboy, Vince Vater, is a retired newspaperman living in Memphis, who grew up in the fifties. He was also a stutterer, just like our hero, Victor Volmer, whose name we learn on the last page of the book. The similarity of occupation, location, name and disability make this book highly autobiographical, and the parts of the book dealing with Victor’s stuttering and the Memphis location are well written and believable. The other parts of the book seem disconnected and choppy. Besides the stuttering, there are many themes going on Paperboy– racism, drinking, spousal abouse,illegitimacy and even murder. All of these are big enough issues to stand on their own, but none of them are ever resolved.
At times I was unsure of where the author was headed with his characters. I didn’t get a real feel for Victor’s mom and her relationship with Victor. She seems distracted in every scene they have together. On his paper route, Victor is fascinated by the flirty Mrs. Worthington, the pretty, drunk with the open housecoat (ahum!) and Mr. Spiro a real linguist (the complete opposite of Victor) who gives Victor a dollar bill cut into pieces of a puzzle that spell out student, servant, seller and seeker (what?). These characters are left with no closure at the end of the book.
Vater tries to touch on segregation in the South, but nothing in depth. Mam is the stereotypical black housekeeper with the heart of gold who works faithfully for her white family. Vater uses black dialogue and the word “colored” to define black characters, but is careful to avoid the ‘N” word, although it is implied in the scene with Victor and Mam at the zoo.
There were some interesting themes in Paperboy, but they are mostly undeveloped and the pacing was slow. I think that the book tries to be more than it is; perhaps this is because Vater is a first time author. Paperboy would appeal mostly to older boys, grades 6 and up due to themes of alcoholism, violence and racism.
November 22, 2016
Somehow, though there's hardly a page that goes by that doesn't have stuttering as the focus, our young hero is so much more than his challenge. A reader is given a chance to feel like she knows him. Like she knows him better than his parents do... their role is very minor, but at the same time they're loving; it's weird....
Anyway, I was not surprised to see that Vawter was inspired by his own childhood. Even though I didn't get all the cultural references, the period in history came alive for me. (Summer of '59.) And so does the disability... I wonder if any young readers will become inspired to become speech pathologists.
Some of the characters were a bit over-the-top, but from the perspective of an 11 yo, that's kinda true... Victor is focused on the key traits of his comrades on this adventure because he's just a kid. But he's learning. He's learning that Mam isn't just a devoted nursemaid/ housekeeper, that Mr. Spiro isn't just a guru, that Mrs. Worthington, Ara T., his parents, his friend Rat... they all have lives beyond their interactions with the 'Substitute Paperboy.' That's a hard lesson to learn, and I'm sure I'm not the only adult who is still trying master it.
The book is short, with exciting bits, and some of the themes are told heavy-handedly. I suppose Vawter wanted to make sure this is accessible to reluctant readers. But it's more than that. I think, even though it's not perfect, it does have universal appeal, and I also hope that the author has another good book for me to read.
Anyway, I was not surprised to see that Vawter was inspired by his own childhood. Even though I didn't get all the cultural references, the period in history came alive for me. (Summer of '59.) And so does the disability... I wonder if any young readers will become inspired to become speech pathologists.
Some of the characters were a bit over-the-top, but from the perspective of an 11 yo, that's kinda true... Victor is focused on the key traits of his comrades on this adventure because he's just a kid. But he's learning. He's learning that Mam isn't just a devoted nursemaid/ housekeeper, that Mr. Spiro isn't just a guru, that Mrs. Worthington, Ara T., his parents, his friend Rat... they all have lives beyond their interactions with the 'Substitute Paperboy.' That's a hard lesson to learn, and I'm sure I'm not the only adult who is still trying master it.
The book is short, with exciting bits, and some of the themes are told heavy-handedly. I suppose Vawter wanted to make sure this is accessible to reluctant readers. But it's more than that. I think, even though it's not perfect, it does have universal appeal, and I also hope that the author has another good book for me to read.
June 15, 2015
I am so so glad that his book hit the BATTLE OF THE BOOKS list for Wisconsin or I may not have heard about it. I listened to the audio read by Lincoln Hoppe and his performance was stellar. I did not want this book to end. While gentle in its approach, it was captivating and thought provoking. Even when probing issues such as race and violence, there was an underlying note of sensitivity and pragmatism that left me (the reader) hopeful and contented.
The book is a coming of age story about a boy who takes over a paper route for his best friend while his friend is on vacation. During the course of doing this favor for his friend, the paperboy finds out about the lives and the lifestyles of the customers on his route. He is also reflecting heavily on his own life and lifestyle: what it is like to live in a society where his family has a black maid/nanny; what it is like to be successful at baseball; what it like to be not so successful at communicating because of a stutter and people mistaking you for being unintelligent; what it is like to love words so very much and realize that writing might be the vehicle for them. The languid story (with some very funny moments) draws you in to hot summer days in the south and leaves you richer for meeting the characters particularly Mam, Mr. Spiro, and Victor Vollmer/Little Man/paperboy.
The book is a coming of age story about a boy who takes over a paper route for his best friend while his friend is on vacation. During the course of doing this favor for his friend, the paperboy finds out about the lives and the lifestyles of the customers on his route. He is also reflecting heavily on his own life and lifestyle: what it is like to live in a society where his family has a black maid/nanny; what it is like to be successful at baseball; what it like to be not so successful at communicating because of a stutter and people mistaking you for being unintelligent; what it is like to love words so very much and realize that writing might be the vehicle for them. The languid story (with some very funny moments) draws you in to hot summer days in the south and leaves you richer for meeting the characters particularly Mam, Mr. Spiro, and Victor Vollmer/Little Man/paperboy.
March 31, 2018
خوبیه کتابای نوجوان اینه که راحت و بیتکلف هستند و هرچقدر هم قطور باشن سریع خونده میشن ولی لذت خوندنشون تا مدتها همراهِ آدم میمونه.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,761 reviews