The Newspaper Boy

Named To kirkus Reviews best Books Of The Newspaper Boy Is ARemarkable Collection Of Memories And Personal Reflections Of The Deep Emotional Conflicts AYoung Newspaper Delivery Boy, Chervis Isom, Encountered While Growing Up In Birmingham, Alabama, In ATime Of Racial Strife And Discord In The s And Early ,sAQuiet And Shy Boy, The Young Isom Was AReader, And It Would Be The Written Word He Would Turn To As He Tried To Make Sense Of His WorldMany Of Isom,s Stories Are Tied To The 'southern Way Of Life,' ACulture In Which He Grew Up That Assumed An Inflexible White Superiority Represented By Jim Crow Laws, Laws That His Father, AGreyhound Bus Driver, Was Obligated To Enforce In The Face Of ARising Reaction By His African American Riders That He Neither Understood Nor ToleratedIsom,s Early Adolescent Views, Shaped By His Father,s Frustrations, Are Thrown Into Stark Contrast As He Is Drawn To The Positive Influence Of Helen And Vern Miller, AYoung Couple From The Far North Who Moved Onto His Paper Route, Bringing With Them Alien Ideas Completely Out Of Step With His Own Culture And TeachingsEven Though The Millers, Views Would Clash With His Own, They Quickly Became His Favorite CustomersEach Saturday They Opened Their Door To Him At Collection Time, Inviting Him In To Politely Discuss And Debate The Day,s IssuesThrough The Millers, Progressive Approach To The Growing Racial Unrest In Birmingham In The Midto Lates, The Young Isom Gradually Learned, In ASeries Of Fits And Starts, Advances And Setbacks, To Question The Prevailing Cultural Attitudes And Biases Towards The African American CommunityIn The End, He Would Come To Understand The Simple Truth, As Expressed By RevMartin Luther King, Jr., That People Must Be Judged Not 'by The Color Of Their Skin, But By The Content Of Their Character.' Isom,s Narrative Tells The Story Of Good, Churchgoing Southern People Bound Up In The Jim Crow Culture Of Their Time, Completely Ignorant Of The African American ExperienceIt Tells Of The Value Of Hard Work And Education And The Importance Of The Written Word To Change Us For The BetterHis Story Is Replete With His Gratitude To The Millers, Who Took The Time And Effort To Lead Him To ABetter Place, To Abe Berkowitz, Who Saw In Isom Something He Had Not Seen In Himself And The Man Who Would One Day Become His Law Partner, And Finally To His Father, As He Belatedly Came To Recognize The Imp
'