[5] An audiobook version, narrated by Forest Whitaker and accompanied by a short video with animations based on the original illustrations, was released by Weston Woods Studios in 2000.

[8] Kirkus Reviews called the book "a gentle salve for the instability in so much of modern life" and favorably compared the black paperboy to the protagonist from The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.

[9] Wendy Lukehart, writing for School Library Journal, called The Paperboy a "totally satisfying story", praising Pilkey's "graceful economy of language" and "deep, sumptuous acrylics".

[10] Mary M. Burns of The Horn Book Magazine praised the "lyrical combination of text and pictures" and "rich and inviting" palette, and called the story a "meditative evocation of the extraordinary aspects of ordinary living".

AudioFile wrote that "Forest Whitaker narrates with the gentle voice the story merits," and that the various sound effects added "just enough reality to the delicate scene".