Tim Bower's tense and sensitive River Boy is, quite simply, an excellent book that deservedly won the Carnegie Medal in 1998.

Jess, a talented and obsessive swimmer, finds it difficult to come to terms with her grandfather's impending death but at the same time cannot understand his refusal to let go until he has finished his final painting "River Boy". On a family holiday, which takes Jess and Grandpa back to the places of his childhood, Jess too becomes involved in the mysterious painting and finds herself drawn to the real River-Boy who leads her into a challenge that she must complete before it is too late.

Written with a sense of calm amidst the brooding atmosphere of the story it tells, River Boy is a well-crafted, poetic novel written by a man whose talent for creating visual images with the use of a few, carefully chosen words will surely help to make it a modern classic.

Hot on atmosphere and strong on characters this haunting book, which so delicately yet so profoundly looks at the very nature of life and death, the past and the future, deserves a place on every discerning readers bookshelf. (Ages 10 and over). --Susan Harrison