River Boy - Softcover

Bowler, Tim

3.74

1,699 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192754440 ISBN 13: 9780192754448

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA, 2006

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While trying to cope with the knowledge that her grandfather is dying, Jess meets a boy who challenges her to swim down the river to the sea - her grandfather's ambition. The boy then disappears, and Jess learns her grandfather has died peacefully.

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Review:

"She needed to swim. To be deprived of swimming would be like a perverse kind of drowning. She loved the sensation of power and speed, the feeling of glistening in a bed of foam." Jess is a passionate distance swimmer, and has been looking for a unique water challenge to test her endurance. But when her adored grandfather, an irascible artist, suffers a heart attack, she focuses all her energy on making him well.

Though weak and perhaps dying, her grandfather insists that the family still take their planned vacation--a trip to the rural countryside where he spent his boyhood. There, Jess finds a river that is perfect for swimming, the same river that is the inspiration for her grandfather's latest painting, titled River Boy. As the shadowy image of a boy takes shape on her grandfather's canvas, Jess encounters her own river boy, a mysterious young man who seems to be able to swim as well as she does. In discovering how the two "river boys" are related, Jess finds both the swimming challenge she has been searching for and a graceful way to cope with her grandfather's passing.

British author Tim Bowler gently illustrates the fear of a loved one's passing by using a river's timeless flow as a metaphor for the journey of life. Teens will relate to Jess's frustration with her lack of control over her grandfather's situation, while being moved to a better understanding and acceptance of death. River Boy is the winner of the 1998 Carnegie Medal for excellence in children's literature. (Ages 11 and older) --Jennifer Hubert

About the Author:

Carnegie Medal and Angus Book Award for River Boy
Angus Book Award and Lancashire Children's Book Award for Shadows
South Lanarkshire Award and Stockton Libraries Award for Storm Catchers
Other titles: Midget, Dragon's Rock, Starseeker, Apocalypse, Frozen Fire

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