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Paperboy (novel) facts for kids

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Paper Boy
Paperboy cover.jpg
Author Vince Vawter
Illustrator Illustrator
Country U.S.A
Language English
Genre Novel
Publisher Delacorte Press
Publication date
 5/14/2013
Media type Print
Pages Pages pp224
ISBN 978-0-385-74244-3

Paperboy is a 2013 young adult novel by author Vince Vawter. The novel was a Newbery Medal Honor Book in 2014.

Description

The author Vince Vawter was inspired to write the novel Paperboy because it is an autobiographical novel, almost a memoir, about a speech impediment he has had all of his life. As a child he suffered with it and as an adult it has been a challenge that he welcomes and finds that it gives him a certain amount of inner strength.

Plot

The story takes place in 1959 in Memphis. "Little Man" Victor, an eleven-year-old boy who stutters, takes over his best friend Rat's paper route while Rat is visiting his grandparents. Little Man has various encounters with Rat’s customers. The paper route poses challenges and introduces Little Man to life's daily obstacles.

He has a run-in with the neighborhood junk man, Ara T, a bully and thief who Little Man was warned to stay away from by his Mam. Ara puts the boy's life, as well as Mam's, in danger. Victor begins to wonder what it means to have a soul. He thinks about his talks with Mr. Spiro, a merchant sailor who has settled into the area; who he met on his paper route. He sees Mrs. Worthington walking hand in hand with her husband and hopes she's happy. He befriends a boy on the route who he has learned is deaf, and he is finally able to tell his mother that the food she thinks is his favorite is not. Though he has recently discovered that his dad is not his birth father, he embraces their loving relationship and strives to deepen it. Mr. Spiro, he learns, is going to leave soon on one of his merchant ships, and he gives Little Man a cut up dollar bill with 4 words on it. By the end of the book, he is even able to speak several full sentences in front of his class, finally verbalizing his own name for the first time. Victor tells Mam he's learned that what he says is more important than how he says it and that his soul doesn't stutter. In the end, it turns out that Victor had typed up the entire book.

Characters

  • Victor Vollmer/ "Little Man"- a stuttering 11-year-old boy who takes on a new responsibility, which is his friend's paper route, and is intrigued by all the new things happening in the neighborhood around him.
  • Mam - a protective housekeeper who goes to great lengths to make sure "Little Man" is treated right.
  • Arthur "Rat" - "Little Man's" friend whose paper route he is covering for.
  • Ara T - a junkman who causes trouble for "Little Man" and Mam.
  • Mrs. Worthington - a depressed woman who turns to alcohol quite frequently.
  • Mr. Spiro - an intelligent traveler who has patience and helps "Little Man" understand things that he is intrigued about.
  • TV Boy (Paul P.) - a boy who is deaf and watches TV all day to practice lip reading and is later befriended by Victor.
  • Parents - mom who is real and a father who is not Victor's dad.
  • Mr. Worthington - Mrs. Worthington's husband
  • Coach - Victor's coach for baseball
  • Big Sack - friends with Ara T, and cuts Victor's parents' lawn

Awards

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