Paperboy Summary

Victor Vollmer the Third is an eleven-year-old boy who has struggled with stuttering his whole life. He lives in Memphis, Tennessee in 1959, when segregation is still common, and he has a live-in black nanny who he calls Mam. Mam is Victor's best friend and closest companion, even though his parents live with him, too, and love him a lot.

Victor's other best friend, Rat, is out of town for a month so he asks Victor to take over his paper route. Victor is excited about the throwing papers part of it—after all, he's an amazing baseball player—but he's scared of going house-to-house on Fridays to collect the money. He doesn't want to talk to people. Still, though, he decides it's something that he has to do himself. He has to confront his fears.

Victor goes on the paper route and gets in trouble with a woman because she thinks he's calling her a "b****" when he's really just saying "pitch." This is Mrs. Worthington, a lovely but troubled woman who drinks a whole lot. After Victor leaves her an apology note, she forgives him. Phew.

He also encounters a house where a boy sits in front of the TV all day and seems transfixed by it, as well as meets a man named Mr. Spiro who reads a whole lot of books. When Mr. Spiro asks Victor what his name is, the effort of trying not to stutter makes him pass out and Mr. Spiro helps him recover. He talks to Victor like he's an adult and tells him a lot of interesting facts, so Victor decides that he likes him.

In the meantime, Victor asks the African American junkman, Ara T, to sharpen his knife. He's not supposed to hang around Ara T because Mam says he's up to no good, but Victor does it anyway—and ends up regretting the decision because Ara T refuses to give him his knife back. Drat.

Victor tries to follow Ara T to figure out where his hiding place is, but when he finds the shed, he can't locate his knife. When Victor finally tells Mam what happened to his knife, she tells him that she's going to get the knife back for him and that he shouldn't worry. Then she inexplicably takes a few days off of work, much to Victor's confusion.

Victor starts learning more about the folks on his paper route, especially the beautiful Mrs. Worthington, who has other men over while her husband is out of town. Victor sees her passed out from drinking and overhears her fights with her husband when he is home instead of off on his business trips.

Mr. Spiro starts giving Victor one corner of a dollar bill every week with a different word on it—words like "seeker," "seller," and "student." One night, Victor goes out to dinner with his parents and they meet up with some friends. Victor is so nervous being around the group of adults and having to speak that he throws up all over the table and has to go home. At home, he overhears his parents talking about how his stutter is genetic.

When his parents are out, Victor goes into their bedroom and looks in the closet. There, he finds his birth certificate and learns that his father isn't his real father—his biological dad is listed as "unknown" on the certificate. He doesn't bring this up to his parents, not even when his father gets home early from work and takes Victor out to see a movie.

Mam comes back and her face is all messed up—it's clear someone has beaten her up, even though she claims to have fallen. Victor immediately knows that Ara T did this and feels utterly awful for her. He also goes on his paper route and shares a poem that he wrote with Mr. Spiro. This is a pretty big deal since it's the first time that Victor's even told anyone that he writes poetry.

Victor and Mam go to the zoo one day and he realizes how many restrictions there are on Mam because she's black. She has to ride in the back of the bus and can only get into the zoo on certain days if she's wearing her uniform and accompanying Victor. He wants to take a picture with her at the zoo but she says that the white people wouldn't allow it. Still, Victor lies to the photographer and says that Mam saved his life and that he wants a picture of them together. He stutters a lot so that the photographer takes pity on him and takes the picture for them.

Later that week, Victor goes into his room and finds it totally ransacked. Yikes. His money is missing and he knows right away that Ara T did it. Mam says that she's going to fix this and that Victor should go over to Rat's mom's house, but he follows her instead. They go on the bus to the part of town where black people live and Mam tells Victor to hide in Ara T's cart while she goes in to confront him.

While waiting, Victor hears a ruckus inside and so he heads in, only to find Ara T with his hands around Mam's neck, threatening to kill her just like he killed her brother. Victor picks up a beer bottle and throws it right at Ara T's head. It hits him and he lets go of Mam but then comes for Victor, threatening to slit his throat. That's when Big Sack—a large man who is friends with Mam—steps in and stops him.

Mam gets Victor's things back and they return home. She tells him that Ara T lived in the same town where she grew up, and that she always suspected that he killed her brother but had no proof. That's why she told Victor to stay away from him.

The month ends and Victor's friend Rat comes back to take over the paper route again. Mr. Spiro leaves Victor a note saying that he'll be going on an adventure for a few months but will be back in the fall and looks forward to hanging out with him more. Aw… He also learns that the boy who always is watching TV is deaf and watching in order to learn how to read lips. Victor decides that he's going to befriend him since they both have a tougher time communicating than most people.

In the end, Victor decides that he doesn't care if his father is biologically related to him or not; he's still his dad and he loves him wholeheartedly. He also becomes less nervous about his stutter and more willing to speak out in public. Growing up is hard to do… but in the end, it's worth it for Victor.