Bowler won the annual Carnegie Medal, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.

When he falls ill, he insists on returning to the isolated valley where he lived as a child to finish his last painting, a haunting landscape called 'River Boy'.

While exploring the valley, Jess feels a strange presence and sees a mysterious boy in the river, now there, now gone.

Susan Cooper described the novel as "a poem, as well as a very moving novel", saying that "A river is a natural metaphor for life and death and Tim Bowler uses it to wonderful effect in this lovely simple story.

"[6] Reviews in the national newspapers praised the novel's atmosphere and subject matter: In announcing the award of the 1997 Carnegie Medal, the judges said: "This extremely fine novel was a clear winner... River Boy has all the hallmarks of a classic - it deepens with re-reading, and takes the reader on a journey.