Vawter, Vince.
PAPERBOY
New York : Delacorte, 2013
IL 5-8, RL 5.5
ISBN 0375990585

(2 booktalks)

Booktalk #1

It was just going to be for a month.  He was just helping out a friend.  But taking over paper delivery duties in July 1959 turns into a life lesson for one young boy.  The job is harder than he thought.  The Memphis heat is almost unbearable.  But he enjoys the opportunity to practice his throwing skills.  His biggest concern is the Friday collections.  He has a severe stutter and is very nervous about having to talk to strangers.  But that is not all he encounters that summer.  Along the way, he meets Mr. Spiro who loves to read; Mrs. Worthington who may be hiding some things; and a young boy who just stares at the television all day.  All of the people he meets during the summer lead him to understand his own world just a bit better.

Booktalk #2

An 11-year-old boy living in Memphis in 1959 throws the meanest fastball in town, but talking is a whole different ball game. He can barely say a word without stuttering, not even his own name. So when he takes over his best friend's paper route for the month of July, he worries about being forced to communicate with the different customers, including a housewife who drinks too much and a retired merchant marine who seems to know just about everything.
 
The paper route poses challenges, but it's a run-in with the neighborhood junkman, a bully and thief, that stirs up real trouble – and puts the boy's life, as well as that of his family's devoted housekeeper, in danger.   (Vermont Dorothy Canfield Fisher award, 2015)