Victor Vollmer

Victor Vollmer is an 11-year-old kid who has a profound stutter. In this novel, Victor is forced to face his stutter head on when he takes over a newspaper route for a friend and has to speak to strangers in order to collect their money. It is the bravest thing Victor has ever done and it leads to him making friends with several new people.

Victor learns a lot over this one month of summer. When he meets Mr. Spiro, he finds an adult who is willing to speak to him as though he is an adult. Victor has never met anyone like Mr. Spiro. Victor also learns from Mam, his family housekeeper. Mam shows him that even when life pushes you down, there is never any excuse for a lack of courage. From Mrs. Worthington, Victor learns that sometimes life beats you down and you have...