About this item
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 knows he'll be 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.
About the Author
Vince Vawter, a retired newspaper editor and publisher, is the author of Paperboy, a 2014 Newbery Honor Book published by Delacorte Press. The Newbery Honor is awarded for outstanding contribution to literature for young people.Its sequel, Copyboy, will be published by Capstone Editions on Aug. 1, 2018.Paperboy, set in Memphis in 1959, tells the story of a boy who must take on his best friend's newspaper route for a month even though he knows he will have trouble collecting because of his worrisome stutter. Copyboy, the sequel, skips six years and picks up the young man's story at 17, showing new challenges as he prepares to enter college and his journey toward maturity.Much of the action in the two books is based on Vawter's experiences as a boy and then as a teenager. Since Paperboy's publication, Vawter has spoken at more than 100 schools and conferences in 16 states. Paperboy is in its 11th printing in the United States and has been published in eight foreign languages, including Chinese, Japanese and German.Vawter retired after a 40-year career in newspapers, most recently as the publisher and president of the Evansville (Ind.) Courier & Press. He is a past board president of the Hoosier State Publishers Association. He previously served as managing editor of The Knoxville News Sentinel from 1988 to 1995. He lives with his wife in Louisville, Tenn., on a small farm.