About A Childrens' Book, Paper Boy

With technological change digitally edited newspapers emerged from presses faster.  Many papers, including The Tacoma News Tribune, could switch from afternoon to morning.  And an after school job that meant active time outdoors for a child before supper changed into getting out of bed as early as four a.m. every day.  Newspaper distribution centers did not anticipate children removed from paper boy jobs by their schools when they could not stay awake in class, but soon papers reassigned the delivery job to adults. 

The children's book, Paper Boy, which I read at a sidewalk book cupboard Little Free Library location, appears to feature a child in the middle, his experience framed only in one morning of the job.  Not only are rainy and snowy mornings not shown, also not shown is his job loss, perhaps when, at school, his head nods and nods and his teacher asks him to visit the school office.

Children's stories are often idealized portraits.  Among the lovely illustrations in Paper Boy are sunrises that could be sunsets in an earlier time when paper boys worked after school.  Newspapers might be correct to locate student jobs after school in other areas of their systems, because the association of youth with the news is so long-term and was so enduring.

This book reminds me of a favorite from childhood, Little Owl Indian.  One reason Little Owl Indian is reserved for historic children's literature collections is, I am sure, narrative.  In the narrative, Little Owl Indian tells the forest animals that a fire is coming.  Probably Little Owl Indian was alerted to the fire by the animals.  But in Little Owl Indian the horses are beautiful. 

(I delivered the morning Tacoma News Tribune for over five years, 1999-2004.)