[ 책 소개 ]

* 2014 Newbery Honor 수상작
* 2014 A National Parenting Publications Award 수상작
* 2014 IRA Teachers' Choices
* 2014 A BookPage Best Children’s Book
* 2014 An IRA Children’s and Young Adults’ Choice
* 2014 An ABC New Voices Pick
* 2014 A Junior Library Guild Selection
* 2014 ALA Notable Children's Book
* 2015 Kentucky Bluegrass Award Nominee
* 2014 Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College Children's Book of the Year
* 2015 Vermont Dorothy Canfield Fischer Book Award Nominee


1950년대 미국 남부의 멤피스라는 중소도시를 배경으로, 주인공인 11살 말더듬이 소년이 여름방학 동안 집을 비운 친구 렛을 대신하여 한달 동안 신문 배달을 하면서 겪게 되는 다양한 일들을 씨줄과 날줄을 엮듯이 치밀하게 구성한 전형적인 성장소설입니다. 국내에서는 "나는 말하기 좋아하는 말더듬이입니다"라는 제목으로 번역서가 출간되었습니다.

이 책은 말더듬증 때문에 사람들을 기피하던 빅터가 타인의 시선에 주눅 들지 않고 당당히 말하게 되기까지의 과정을 그린 작품입니다. 열세 살 주인공을 통해 인간에 대한 깊은 이해와 통찰력을 담은 이 책은 60여 년간 말더듬이로 살아온 저자 빈스 바터의 자전적 이야기이기도 합니다.

주인공 빅터는 부유한 가정의 외동아들로 부족할 게 없지만, 친구를 대신해서 한 달 동안만 임시로 신문을 배달합니다. 원래 야구팀에서 강속구를 잘 던지기로 유명한 빅터에게 집집마다 신문을 던지는 일쯤이야 식은 죽 먹기입니다. 다만, 매주 금요일마다 신문값을 받으러 다닐 것을 생각하면 잠을 설칠 정도로 걱정이 앞섭니다. 왜냐 하면 빅터는 입만 열면 더듬거리는 말투 때문에 모자란 아이 취급을 받기 일쑤이기 때문입니다.

그러나 빅터는 사람들과 하나둘 교류하며 조금씩 변해 갑니다. 특히 해박한 지식과 따뜻한 품성을 지닌 스피로 아저씨를 만나면서부터 빅터는 ‘대화’를 하고 싶어 합니다. 빅터는 사람들과 조금씩 소통하며, 본연의 자기 모습을 서서히 깨달아 갑니다. 언어 장애를 가진 말더듬이가 아니라, 야구를 좋아하고 시를 쓰고 신문 기자를 꿈꾸는 멀쩡한 빅터로서 말입니다.

이제 자신의 상처를 딛고 타인의 삶 속으로 서서히 발을 들여놓는 빅터는 하고 싶은 말을 입 밖으로 내뱉지 못하고 타자기로 쳐서 전하던 예전의 말더듬이가 아닙니다. 엄청 느리고 발음이 웃겨도 더듬거리며 하고 싶은 말을 끝까지 하는 당찬 소년으로 거듭난 것입니다.

이 책은 이렇듯 말더듬이 빅터가 자신의 한계를 인정하고 극복해 나가는 과정을 통해, 갖가지 이유로 절망에 갇힌 청소년들에게 용기를 북돋우며 건강한 삶으로 나아갈 수 있도록 이끌어 주는 훌륭한 작품입니다.






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Hardcover: 62 pages
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0394800389
ISBN-13: 978-0394800387
책 크기: 23 cm x 17 cm



[ 영문 서평 ]

Book Description
This Newbery Honor winner is perfect for fans of To Kill a Mockingbird, The King’s Speech, and The Help. A boy who stutters comes of age in the segregated South, during the summer that changes his life.

Little Man 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’s not exactly looking forward to interacting with the customers. But it’s the neighborhood junkman, a bully and thief, who stirs up real trouble in Little Man’s life.


School Library Journal
After an overthrown baseball busts his best friend's lip, 11-year-old Victor Vollmer takes over the boy's paper route. This is a particularly daunting task for the able-armed Victor, as he has a prominent stutter that embarrasses him and causes him to generally withdraw from the world. Through the paper route he meets a number of people, gains a much-needed sense of self and community, and has a life-threatening showdown with a local cart man. The story follows the boy's 1959 Memphis summer with a slow but satisfying pace that builds to a storm of violence. The first-person narrative is told in small, powerful block paragraphs without commas, which the stuttering narrator loathes. Vawter portrays a protagonist so true to a disability that one cannot help but empathize with the difficult world of a stutterer. Yet, Victor's story has much broader appeal as the boy begins to mature and redefine his relationship with his parents, think about his aspirations for the future, and explore his budding spirituality. The deliberate pacing and unique narration make Paperboy a memorable coming-of-age novel.


Booklist *Starred Review*
It’s hot in Memphis during the summer of 1959 - in all kinds of ways. Things heat up for the book’s 11-year-old narrator when he takes over his pal Rat’s paper route; meeting new people is a horror for the boy because he stutters. He only really feels comfortable with Rat and Mam, the African American maid who takes care of him when his parents are away, which is often. But being the paperboy forces him to engage in the world and to ask for payments from customers, like pretty, hard-drinking Mrs. Worthington and Mr. Spiro, who gives the boy the confidence to voice his questions and then offers answers that - wondrously - elicit more questions. Others intrude on his life as well. In a shocking scene, Ara T, the dangerous, disturbing junk man tries to take something precious from the boy. In some ways, the story is a set piece, albeit a very good one: the well-crafted characters, hot Southern summer, and coming-of-age events are reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird. But this has added dimension in the way it brilliantly gets readers inside the head of a boy who stutters. First-time author Vawter has lived this story, so he is able to write movingly about what it’s like to have words exploding in your head with no reasonable exit. This paperboy is a fighter, and his hope fortifies and satisfies in equal measure.