Paper Route

Seventeen year old Gary Matthews faced the same old story: a new town, new school, making new friends. His father was an Air Force pilot and they had just been stationed in Homestead, Florida in 1958. Trying to avoid an unhappy home life and fill the void of his summer, Gary stumbles upon a job that will change his life: a colored paper route in Jim Crow Dixie. To his surprise, Gary soon makes scores of friends, from the elderly widow, Hattie Donovan to the vivacious Lucy Brown, to Ty Shaw and his days of Negro League Baseball and friendship with the legendary Satchel Paige, to an unlikely and dangerous romance with Joyce Rogers. Gary soon faces redneck bullies at school as well as the biases of his own parents. But when tragedy strikes, Gary is comforted by the love and affection of those on his route. His time on The Paper Route teaches Gary life lessons that will shape and guide him for years to come: love, compassion, sorrow, faith, hopelessness and the indignities of life amongst the poor. It is a remarkable, touching experience of warmth, kindness and learning how to see the world from another person's perspective.

Have you ever had a special experience that you wanted to share with everyone? The Paper Route is just that""a true, once-in-a-lifetime story involving the author and her very ornery ten-year-old brother. Written from the perspective of a seven-year-old little girl, Loraine recounts how she helped her brother with an early morning paper route""in the dark, with no parents, and in the heart of a big city. The two of them develop confidence when they persevere in spite of real and imaginary challenges. Loraine learns that her brother's aggressive, self-willed traits (that she had despised so often), are exactly what made him a good leader. She is pleasantly surprised when her ornery brother ends up being her hero! It's a fun story, not only for young people. Those who were raised before cell phones and electronic devices are sure to enjoy the memories and humorous situations she shares. People of all ages can enjoy a little moment in time, as she takes you back to the way things were in 1966. Ironically, this endearing, light-hearted story is packed with serious lessons. Lessons that changed Loraine's way of thinking and taught her many concepts that help her deal with everyday life. Ask yourself the following questions before reading this book. Then ask yourself the same questions afterwards. See if you also glean the wisdom she did. Do you assume rich people are always snobs? That confident people are arrogant, self-serving, and think themselves as superior to others? Do you think rebellious people are nothing but troublemakers? Have you ever noticed how "bully" people can be your best friend in a crisis? What about parenting? Will you allow your children to take the easy way out when they encounter "real" challenges? As a parent, what is your attitude regarding your kids watching a horror movie? Are they "really" harmless? What about faith? If you were convinced a potentially dangerous experience would benefit your children, would you trust Jesus to keep them safe? What if you are a people pleaser, like Loraine was. Would you know when it's okay to be assertive to the point of being pushy or even aggressive? Are you convinced that reading for pleasure is not a waste of time? Do you read poetry? If not, why? Do you think poetry lacks honest value? There are a number of powerful concepts to learn from this story. Loraine's attitudes regarding these issues are forever changed. It's amazing what one can learn on a paper route!

From the bestselling author of the generation-defining series The Baby-sitters Club comes a series for a new generation! Karen is a papergirl!Karen really wants Moonbeam, the new video game system. But Daddy won’t buy it for her. So Karen decides to get a job. She will help Kristy deliver newspapers. It is hard work. Karen has to get very early in the morning! And some people are pretty picky about how their papers are delivered. Can Karen earn the money she needs?

THE PAPER ROUTE is a murder mystery wrapped in a family saga. It moves from mid-century mill-town, Lowell, Massachusetts to Beat Generation Greenwich Village. The protagonist is a paper girl who, in the course of her daily delivery of the newspaper, unwittingly collects information relevant to an on-going murder investigation.Part mystic-part truant, the paper girl can tell good people from bad at a glance. Compelled to undo a reported injustice, she seeks out and shares her insights with the childless and charmed case detective. Together they solve two murders and inadvertently trigger another.

As author Philip Meyer sat in a college class listening to a professor lecture about systematic tools for measuring things like trust in government, a thought struck him: a journalist could do this! He thought about the newsroom conversations he’d had about the possibility of reporting on some interesting social phenomena. The group always ended with a shrug and a lament that there was no way to measure it—but he began to wonder. It was an epiphany for Meyer, who went on to report on the 1967 racial riots in Detroit and write the groundbreaking book Precision Journalism. While others were arguing that reporters should not use scientific methods to make conclusions of their own, Meyer was using computers and statistical software to elevate the standards of traditional journalism. At age fifty, he switched gears and entered the world of academe, where he continues to stir the pot. In Paper Route, he recalls two interconnected careers and examines how journalism, quantitative methods, and original thinking led him to live the remarkable life that he’s still enjoying.

The stories of black American professionals, both historic and contemporary, reveal the hardships and triumphs they faced in overcoming racism to succeed in their chosen fields. This extraordinary four-volume work is the first of its kind, a comprehensive exploration of the obstacles black men and women, both historic and contemporary, have faced and overcome to succeed in professional positions. Voices of Historical and Contemporary Black American Pioneers includes the life and career histories of black American pioneers, past and present, who have achieved extraordinary success in fields as varied as aviation and astronautics, education, social sciences, the humanities, the fine and performing arts, law and government, and medicine and science. The set covers well-known figures, but is also an invaluable source of information on lesser-known individuals whose accomplishments are no less admirable. Arranged by career category, each section of the work begins with a biographical narrative of early black pioneers in the field, followed by original interviews conducted by the editors or autobiographical narratives written by the subjects. In all, more than 150 scholars and professionals share inspiring insights into how they persevered to overcome racism and succeed in an often-hostile world.