However, and for me this is a rather problematic however, the main character, the eponymous paperboy, looks incredibly and in my humble opinion much too young for a solo pre-dawn paper route (although his age is never mentioned, to my eyes and judging from the illustrations, he appears as being about five to seven years of age, and while I am NOT in any way against children having tasks, responsibilities and even certain jobs, sending a very young boy out alone on a paper route while it is still dark outside, seems more than a bit foolhardy of especially the parents). Pilkey's text and accompanying images suit one another perfectly, providing not only a perfect mirror of one another on a visual, concrete level, but also capturing the insubstantial, the non fathomable, the moods and potential feelings engendered (I can thus most definitely understand why and how The Paperboy won a Caldecott Honour designation, as especially the induced spirit of the illustrations is outstanding, with a created glowing ambience that both delights and enchants).

In many ways Dav Pilkey's The Paperboy simply and evocatively presents an atmospheric, gentle account of a boy on his early morning paper route (accompanied only by his faithful canine companion, the boy slowly makes his way through a town still in the mists of sleep, still under night's cloak of darkness, silently, caressingly, and with understated pathos demonstrating, showing not only a job well-done, but the potential joys of being out and about in the pre-dawn quietude of a brand new day). They let him go alone? He wouldn’t want to do something alone like this. He was shocked that the boy got to go do this all on his own. The nephew is up early every morning, so I could see him doing this rather easily when he gets older, if that job existed. I guess the plus side of it is that you get to see the sun come up each day.

It’s good he had a companion in this early morning endeavor. I also like that the boy’s dog went with him everywhere. Still, it’s nice to see their experience. I don’t think they have one in Baltimore either. Where I grew up, they had a delivery van that brought the papers to each house. He gets home when the sun is coming up and goes back to bed for some ‘z’s.ĭav does a wonderful job at showing what it’s like in the early morning playing with light and shadow and that feeling of the cold and wanting to be in bed. We see that early morning time it’s still dark and the paperboy gets up out of bed and starts work.

The paperboy picture book