A coming-of-age story that turns into a Newspaper story

I just finished this novel and can give it a hearty endorsement. It starts out as a coming-of-age story and morphs, sort of, into a Newspaper story.

Here’s the Amazon blurb:

Eli Bell’s life is complicated. His father is lost, his mother is in jail, and his stepdad is a heroin dealer. The most steadfast adult in Eli’s life is Slim—a notorious felon and national record-holder for successful prison escapes—who watches over Eli and August, his silent genius of an older brother.
Exiled far from the rest of the world in Darra, a neglected suburb populated by Polish and Vietnamese refugees, this twelve-year-old boy with an old soul and an adult mind is just trying to follow his heart, learn what it takes to be a good man, and train for a glamorous career in journalism. Life, however, insists on throwing obstacles in Eli’s path—most notably Tytus Broz, Brisbane’s legendary drug dealer.
But the real trouble lies ahead. Eli is about to fall in love, face off against truly bad guys, and fight to save his mother from a certain doom—all before starting high school.
Powerful and kinetic, Trent Dalton’s debut is sure to be one of the most heartbreaking, joyous and exhilarating novels you will experience.

Amazon

It’s a semi-autobiographical novel by Trent Dalton a died in the wool Newspaperman, having worked at The Courier-Mail an Australian Newspaper in Brisbane.

The Boy Swallows the Universe is now a Netflix series.

Let’s hear it for the Paper Girls!

Coming to Netflix on Jul 29, Paper Girls

Writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Cliff Chiang launched their Paper Girls comic series in 2015 alongside colorist Matt Wilson and designer Jared K. Fletcher.

Here’s the lowdown:

After first meeting up in the early morning hours following Halloween 1988 the girls find a time machine that sends them into the present day, where they connect with their own future selves. Commence time-travel adventures!!!

Paper Girls CR: Amazon Prime Video

Paper Girls CR: Amazon Prime Video

Paper Girls CR: Anjali Pinto/Amazon Prime Video

Paper Girls CR: Anjali Pinto/Amazon Prime Video

‘‘Growing up in the suburbs of Cleveland, there was one year when I was around 12, where all of the paper boys in our neighborhood were suddenly replaced by paper girls.

‘‘I just thought it was so badass that these 12-year-old children were going out at 4 a.m. to deliver bad news to adults. It was just so interesting and captivating that they were newspaper delivery kids, sort of a dying breed, and yet they were the first of their kind. I thought, ‘this is such an interesting group of young women. They would make a great heart of a story.’ So it started with that inspiration and expanded from there.’’

Brian K. Vaughan

I remember those blasted shoulder bags. I think I may have a permanent dip in my clavicle from carting around The Denver Post for a few years.

And here’s some more about the upcoming series from Screen Rant:

Paper Girls: 10 Things You Need To Know About The Upcoming TV Show

Screen Rant