Customer Reviews

River Boy

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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Tim Bowler portrays the relationship between Jess and her Grandpa with sensitivity but at no time does it become over-sentimental. There are many mystical, spiritual and emotional elements to this book that make it a book which is accessible on so many levels. I am 21 years old and read this book because I had to study it as part of my teaching degree but would definately put it into my top ten - it reminded me so much of my relationship with my own grandad. This will most certainly become a classic in children's literature

The book I chose to read and review was River Boy by Tim Bowler. It is a very interesting book to read which is very surprising to me because the cover made it seem like a boring book (never judge a book by it's cover. The story had a mystery to it that you couldn't figure out until the very end of the book. I like how the author used the river flowing like humans' life and death. Our birth is where the river forms and our struggles are like the rivers fast times and slow times and the river finally flows into the ocean, and that is our death. I enjoyed this book a lot and is now one of my favorite books. It must be good because it won the 1998 Carnegie medal (which is a medal for the best childrens book). It was a good book to me so I think reader age13-17 would enjoy it also.

The book is about Jess and her ill grandfather. Jess's grandfather just had a heart attack, but before dying, he wishes to complete a painting. To him, painting is like breathing, and w/o finishing it, he would die unfulfilled. The painting is named River Boy, and shortly after, Jess starts seeing this River Boy. For Jess, it is a long ride to let go of her grandfather and to understand the past of this mysterious "river boy".
The book is a good quick read, so that afterwards you can reflect on its meaning. It has a slight deepness that's attractive, but not too much, so that it doesn't make the reader sink. Instead, it is slow, gentle, yet enticing. Enjoy it.

Jess' grandfather is acting very strangely. He has always been grumpy and irritable--that's no different from usual. He has always been a painter, too, obsessed with finishing a painting he's started and especially nasty to those around him until he does manage to find the inspiration to finish it. But the painting he's working on now is not in his usual style, and this one has a name: "River Boy." He's never named one of his paintings before. To make matters even stranger, he has insisted his son and daughter-in-law and granddaughter Jess go on a vacation to the place he lived growing up. The family drives for hours and moves into a small cottage by a river that starts up beyond them and eventually flows down into the ocean. Jess, an excellent swimmer who craves time in the water, loves the location and the river.

Jess' parents are worried, though. Before they left, Jess' grandfather had a heart attack. He insisted on being let out of the hospital in order to go on vacation, but their vacaton spot is so secluded, they worry he will have another heart attack and won't be able to get to a hospital again in time. Her grandfather is fixated on one thing--finishing the painting he's started. It seems to be the only goal he has left in life, but it becomes more and more difficult as he gets weaker and weaker. Jess is torn. She doesn't know how to help him or what he needs. Furthermore, there seems to be a mystery surrounding this place. She keeps seeing a boy out in the river at the strangest hours, a boy she suspects is watching her. Who is he? Is he really as mysterious as Jess thinks, or is her imagination simply running away with her?

I really liked the relationship between Jess and her grandfather. They were very close despite his crabbiness. It was nice that Jess was able to look beyond that. I thought the ending of this book was really good. Things really came together and made sense. However, I didn't like the way Jess' grandfather treated her father; that made me dislike the character of the grandfather a little bit.

I think that this book is a must read. I found that I could never put it down- it was so gripping! I always wanted to know if Jess and her grandfather was alright. You can almost feel the same sort of anxiety that Jess was feeling. River Boy is a great book and I would recommend it strongly to anybody over the age of 12.

I am 12 years old and in my veiw this book was a well thourght out master piece ,and you must read it.