Paper boy

The story of growing up and accepting oneself, told on behalf of the newspapers, who stutters greatly.

The hot summer of 1959, Memphis, USA. The 11-year-old hero (we recognize his name at the end of the novel) plays baseball perfectly, but almost does not speak due to strong stuttering. He has no friends, only Ma, a black nanny, and rice, his classmate. When the rice leaves for the holidays and asks for several weeks to spread newspapers instead of him, the hero understands that this will not be easy, because he will have to talk with strangers. In four weeks, the hero will meet different people - lonely, courageous and terrible. The wise Mr. Spiro, the unfortunate beauty Mrs. Wartington, "Telemalka", with whom he will not say a word, but this will not prevent them from making friends with then ... Each of them will teach him something.

A common language will have to be found with your own parents, because it turns out that the spoken words mean much less than thoughts. He recognizes the secrets hidden behind the closed doors of Memphis, will save from the death of a loved one and understand that his soul does not stutter, and the kinship of souls is much more important than blood.

Autobiographical novel Vince Wounter, awarded Newbury medal, growing up, gaining his own voice and difficult choice. Translation was saved by copyright punctuation.

Book chips
Roman about growing up and gaining your own voice.

Awarded a prestigious award - Newbury medals for contribution to literature for children and youth.

Saved Author"s punctuation: text without commas.

During the editors of the book, they used the recommendations of speech therapists to convey the feature of the hero’s speech (stuttering).

From the author
Readers of the Russian -speaking publication of the book should know that the features of the syntax of the original text in English are preserved in it. "Paperboy" was written without the use of commas. The young hero, the leading narrative, understands that the commas indicate pauses. However, he also knows that the exhausting stuttering forces him to stop too often during the conversation - and against his will. That is why he comes to the conclusion that writing a text without the use of commas brings him a sense of liberation.

Readers should also know that the dialogs are not executed according to the rules - without a dash and quotation marks. I wanted readers to feel that the boy pours out his soul, gaining this text on a printing machine, completely not worried about the rules of punctuation.

The letters "C-SC" found in the text of the works are not used to simulate the stutter of the boy, but simply serve as a signal for the reader-"The boy stuttering at this moment".

deviations from the general rules of the narrative should help readers as best as possible understand the small stuttering newspaper.

For the first time, I realized myself with a stall at five. Today I am stuttering - when more, when less cruel - for more than sixty years. Despite this, I achieved a lot as a journalist and, to my unchanged surprise, I love to tell my story to a variety of people, especially to youth.

Am I cured of stuttering? No. Did I defeat him? Yes.

"Paper Boy" is my story and rather memoirs than fiction. The main character is trying to cope with the difficulties of speaking, but he also comes to understanding that life is not only stuttering