PAPERBOY

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Vawter, Vince.  2013. Paperboy. New York: Random House. ISBN:9780385742443.

PLOT SUMMARY
Little Man, an 11-year-old boy living in Memphis in 1959 takes over his best friend's paper route for the month of  July.  Little  Man's Friend, Rat leaves for the summer to visit his grandparents. Little Man knew that throwing the newspaper would be the easy part since he had a mean fast ball pitch.  The hard part was speaking with his clients every Friday to collect what they owed.  You see the problem is that Little Man has a severe stuttering problem that enabled him to pronounce his own name or his best friend's name. He had a hard time pronouncing many sounds including the f, p, and b sounds.  Through his new endeavor he meets interesting people like a housewife that drank too much and a retired merchant marine, Mr. Spiro, who knows just about everything there is to know.  Little Man has a family housekeeper, Mam, that has worked with him in improving his speech throughout the years.  She has encouraged his writing which he writes by using a typewriter. She is also someone that he can trust and has become his best friend.  The neighborhood has a junkman by the name of Ara T, which is both a bully and  a thief.  Little Man asked Ara T to sharpen his knife so he could use it for cutting the cords on the paper stacks.  When Ara does not return Little Man's knife trouble begins in the life of Little Man.  Little Man experiences from his paper route change him.  His experiences such as fighting, hate, bullying, and even having feelings for a woman change him in  that he learns that others have their own problems they are dealing with. 

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The author did a great job in presenting a realistic plot of the story.  For instance the reader could literally be a part of the story because of the kid friendly text.  The setting was presented by the  author in a very descriptive manner.  You could almost feel, smell, hear Ara T with the figurative language that the author used.  The author did a great job presenting the experiences Little Man experienced.  The experiences were so vivid and surreal giving the reader an opportunity to almost experience what was going on in the 1950's as an 11 year old.  This story made me make many connections to my lift today.  I have recently worked with a student with a severe stuttering problem in 4th grade.  Myself along with the speech teacher we would give him strategies to help him pronounce specific sounds. The only difference with my student and Little Man is that my student loves to talk  and is as confident as can be when communicating with others.  I really enjoyed this story and would definitely recommend it to older reader because of some the words and details the author gave about drinking.

AWARDS AND REVIEW EXCERPTS
Awards
• A Newbery Honor  Award Winner
• An ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Book
• An IRA Children’s and Young Adults’ Choice
• An IRA Teachers’ Choice
• A Junior Library Guild Selection
• A Bank Street College of Education Best Book of the Year
• A National Parenting Publications Award Honor Book
• A BookPage Best Children’s Book
• An ABC New Voices Pick
• An ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Recording
* An ALA-YALSA Amazing Audiobook
* Amazon Best Books of the Year 2013: Ages 9-12

Reviews
An engaging and heartfelt presentation that never whitewashes the difficult time and situation as Little Man comes of age. Ages 10-14.
                                              --Kirkus Reviews

Starred Review. The well-crafted characters, the hot Southern summer, and the coming-of-age events are reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird… This paper boy is a fighter and his hope fortifies and satisfies in equal measure.
                                            --Booklist

The deliberate pacing and unique narration make Paperboy a memorable coming-of-age novel.
                                            --School Library Journal
CONNECTIONS
1) Group the students in groups  of 3-4 and have them make a book trailer for the book.  Invite the Instructional Technologist from your district to come in your classroom and explain how to make a book trailer. 
2) Discuss the word courage and have your students make a poster explaining what courage is only by only using visuals.
3) Divide the class into groups and have them write a Readers Theater script to share in class