Book Review: PAPERBOY by Vince Vawter

Bibliography

Vawter, Vince. PAPERBOY. New York: Delacorte Press, 2013. ISBN 0385742443.

Plot Summary

In July 1959, an eleven-year-old boy temporarily takes over a paper route to help his best friend, Rat, who is visiting his grandfather’s farm for a month. As a baseball pitcher with a good fast pitch, the boy, nicknamed Little Man, wasn’t concerned about throwing newspapers. 

Little Man was worried about coming face-to-face with the customers and being forced to speak with them. Because of Little Man’s stutter, he is anxious about talking to anyone, except for maybe, Mam, the kind lady that has cared for him since he was five and works as a housekeeper for his family.

While delivering newspapers, Little Man gets to know his various customers, such as Mr. Spiro and Mrs. Worthington, and soon learns that everyone has their own struggles. Though he faces some challenges with the paper route, it is his encounter with the neighborhood junkman that puts him in some danger. Little Man also learns a family secret during that hot summer in Memphis, which makes him examine his life a little deeper and helps him grow up a little.

Critical Analysis

In PAPERBOY, author Vince Vawter skillfully probes into the struggles of a boy whose severe stutter restricts his ability to communicate, producing a barrier in his relationships. The author’s style is unique and his use of block paragraphs and no comma or quotations helps create the voice of the main character. 

As the main character learns about being a paperboy, the reader learns about being a paperboy in 1959. The setting is vital to the story as the reader experiences the life and times of Memphis from the perspective of a boy on the verge of adolescence. The coming-of-age theme is relevant to current times, and readers can identify with secondary theme of learning to overcome life’s struggles.

In an Author’s Note, Vawter explains that the story is “certainly more memoir than fiction.” The author is writing what he knows, which makes the characters believable. The reader can’t help but feel sympathetic towards the struggles the main character and others experience as someone with a stutter. 

The plot of the story is presented accurately and yet in a way that a preteen and teen reader would understand. Though there is a stabbing in the story, the author handles that part of the plot without including any unnecessary gory details. The authenticity of Little Man’s experience is more profound when you realize that the author wrote from his own experiences as a stutterer.

Review Excerpt(s)

Newbery Honor Award Winner

From School Library Journal

“Vawter portrays a protagonist so true to a disability that one cannot help but empathize with the difficult world of a stutterer.”

From Booklist

"Reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird."

From Kirkus

“An engaging and heartfelt presentation that never whitewashes the difficult time and situation as Little Man comes of age.”

Book Connections

Other historical fiction Newbery Honor books:

Timberlake, Amy. ONE CAME HOME. ISBN 0375869255.

Vanderpool, Clare, MOON OVER MANIFEST. ISBN 0385738838.

Kelly, Jacqueline, THE EVOLUTION OF CALPERNIA TATE. ISBN 0805088415.

Activities for PAPERBOY:

• Explore online resources and learn more about PAPERBOY, including a Meet-the-Author Book Reading found at http://www.teachingbooks.net/book_reading.cgi?id=9558&a=1 and learn more about the author at http://www.vincevawter.com/.
• Research online and interview individuals to learn more about stuttering and other speech disabilities.
• Use graphic organizers to compare and contrast the similarities and differences between the 1950’s and current times.