River Boy x 30 Award-winning Pack by Tim Bowler (author) (UK edition)

Grandpa is dying. He can barely move his hands any more but, stubborn as ever, refuses to stay in hospital. He’s determined to finish his last painting, ‘River Boy’, before he goes. At first Jess can’t understand his refusal to let go, but then she too becomes involved in the mysterious painting. And when she meets the river boy himself, she is suddenly caught up in a challenge of her own that she must complete – before it’s too late.

Winner of the Carnegie Medal.

“River Boy has all the hallmarks of a classic … You are not the same person at the end of this book.” Carnegie Medal Judges

“The book is indeed a stunner – powerful, magical, unforgettable, a young classic of a book enjoying the first couple of years of what could and should be immortality.” Evening Echo

“Unflinchingly facing down the subject of death, Bowler elevates it into an elegiac, magical depiction of a granddaughter’s relationship with her grandfather.” Scotland on Sunday

“The atmosphere is haunting, the sense of the power beyond ourselves, strong and silent, and the mystery of the natural world, woodlands and airy hills and sliding, glittering water are beautifully suggested, as is the strength – oh, subject most rare – of familial love.” The Spectator

‘A fine winner of this year’s Carnegie Medal – haunting, poetic and written with great feeling.’ The Mail on Sunday

Product Details

Format

Paperback

Date published

June 29th, 2015

Condition

New

UK edition

In this pack

River Boy
Award-winning author

usd prices

Price: $11.10

gbp prices

Price: £7.20

Author/Illustrator

Tim Bowler

Tim Bowler is the author of many books for children, including River Boy, which won the Carnegie Medal in 1997.

More about Tim: “I live in the south-west of England in a sleepy Devon village. It’s a beautiful county and I’ve lived there since 1983. My workroom is an old stone outhouse ten minutes’ walk from my home. You can see a bit of it in the photos over to the right of this page. Family and friends call it Tim’s Bolthole. It’s situated in a quiet part of the village with nothing to hear but birdsong and the occasional snort of horses in some stables. When the weather’s fine, I take my laptop out of the bolthole and into a nearby meadow so that I can sit and write outside. It’s a lovely spot with hills rolling away into the distance, a badger sett down to the left and the tower of the village church just visible to the right. There are lots of foxes, rabbits and birds and sometimes you can see wild deer on the far slopes. It’s a great place to think and write.

Writing is my life. I have lots of things I love doing – playing sports, reading, listening to music, walking, practising yoga, translating foreign languages – but for me writing is special. I’ve written stories all my life. I’m a storyaholic. I believe in the power of stories to move us, entertain us and transform us. To me, writing is as much about listening as it is about putting down words. I start from characters and settings. If the characters and settings are strong enough, then I usually find the plot reveals itself, albeit through a sometimes laborious series of rewrites. Some people think there must be a set of rules for writing but the truth is there aren’t any. It’s more like tickling trout, holding your hand out and trying to coax the ideas to swim into your grasp; or being a potter, throwing the rough clay of your thoughts down and letting the story twist out under the palms of your hands; or being a sorcerer, stirring the cauldron of your imagination and watching the vapour of the story rise. Writing is all these things and many more. It’s something you never bottom, never crack, never stop learning about. And that’s why I love it.”