Chapter 3 - And what about the "River Boy"?

After reading chapter 3, I asked myself what is actually about the title of the novel "River Boy". Until now, there was no "boy" mentioned in the book and I'm also very sure that the main actor of the novel is Jess, a girl. So what can I guess about a "River Boy"?
One can argue the river boy is already mentioned in the first chapter. Yet the recent picture of the grandfather is called "River Boy". Probably it will belong to the role of the river boy in this book, but I'm convinced that the whole book won't only concentrate on this mysterious picture which even doesn't have a boy in it yet. To my mind there must be a real boy as a person, as a character in the plot of the novel.
Nevertheless, it's my only ability to guess who could be this mysterious river boy and to ask myself whether the boy is mentioned somehow. People may say in my situation that the river boy is not mentioned, but there is either no indication for that.
So I'll guess who of the mentioned persons offers the ability to be the river boy. I think the river dealing with the river boy is mentioned yet. It seems to be the river beside the holiday cottage of the family because it's described so detailed (the whole third chapter describes the river in actual). And why would the author let the family go for holidays to a remote place that only the painter of the picture "River Boy" knows and where he lives in his childhood otherwise?
So at my point of view, no one of the family never being at this river before could be the river boy, except grandpa.
He may be the mysterious river boy of his picture and I think that is one rational possibility. Grandpa is going to die and had a cruel childhood at the place where the river is located. Both of his parents died and it seems as his childhood was always a demonstration of weakness for him. So it may be that Jess' granddad wants to tell his family in this picture something about his past he never had shown them before. Perhaps he also wants to remind himself of those experiences he made with the river when he was a little boy, a river boy. That could also be the reason why he wanted to travel with them to that remote place of the river.
However, I have also another imagery of who could be the river boy. For me it is also a possibility that Alfred that mysterious guy grandpa talks about at Chapter 2 could be the river boy. Alfred, that's what we already know, will be, if he's still alive, in the same age as grandpa. So he won't probably indicate a boy yet, however it is possible that grandpa wants to draw a good friend of old times in this "River Boy" picture.
I also would conclude coherence between the end of Chapter 3 and the river boy. Jess feels observed herself by someone, but she cannot guess who is it because she sees nobody. Perhaps the river boy, Alfred, observed her while swimming.
All these specs needn't to be right, but both of them are coherent to the part of the book I read. So they might be fortunetly right.

Chapter 3

Content:

It's the first morning, 5:30, at the cottage and Jess is already awake. She doesn't feel tired anymore, although she felt asleep lately. The nature, the twittering birds and the dabbling river, call her out. So she decides to put on her swimsuit and follow the noises.
Now, in the sunlight she's able to gaze the surrounding of her much better. Around the cottage built at the base of an hill there is a lot of woodland and beyond this woodland she can see a wonderful valley cleaved by the river.
She walks down the cold river and after a short time she recognizes that the river becomes deeper and deeper. After circa 100 yards she begins to swim. First she swims carefully breast-stroke further down to explore the unknown river. Then she stops and looks back. The current (Strömung) took her very fast away from her starting point. It is a completely new experience for the actually experienced swimmer Jess. However, after exploring lots of other facts (e.g. the banks and the different depth) Jess starts to swim in a crawling way against the current back to the cottage. She doesn't want to worry their parents. However, she feels herself observed by someone. Is that only imagination?

My thoughts while reading:

While reading the third chapter I was really influenced by the description of the wonderful nature around Jess. I could absolutely feel this natural silence, this invitation to find some time to relax. All in all I think this novel lets one fall into two extremely different feelings. There is the worry about the grandfather of Jess, but there is also this feeling of relaxation by nature, of course especially of water. Water, that's the passion of Jess and you can get this feeling while reading in an empathic way.
Chapter 3 really calmed me down because this chapter really underlines the effect by nature and water that gives Jess a chargeback for her worries with her loved grandpa. The stress, the fear and the worries with grandpa are cut off here.
So, to put it in a nutshell, Chapter 3 is a calming down chapter where only Jess plays a certain role. The other facts are cutted mostly off.

Chapter 2

The Content:

The journey to the remote place where grandpa has lived in his childhood takes a very long time., but only every now and then there is a conversation between mum, dad, grandpa and Jess. She watches out of the window and looks back to the times of her childhood where she and grandpa explored the whole world together. She reminds of the strength of grandpa and her hope that it'll be ever like this disappears more and more.
Then they arrive at her residence for holiday late at night. There's a little river directly at their little cottage which takes all their attention. The cottage itself is better as they imagined and the loneliness is also liked by every member of the family. The nearest house, the owner's house of their cottage, is 2 miles away and in order to reach the next town, Braymouth, they must go for even 40 miles.
Nevertheless, the journey makes them all very tired. So they want to go to bed quickly. Grandpa sleeps downstairs in a put-up bed and Jess and her parents sleep upstairs. However, a few hours later, as mum anticipated, Jess wakes up in cause of the noisy river directly beneath her window and she is not able to fall asleep again in time. So she makes a trip through the house. At Grandpa's room, she rests, grandpa is also awake and so they talk a short time about what grandpa feels in his old new surroundings. Grandpa mentions the changes that come through a life and that nobody can stop those changes. That really touches Jess and she feels that grandpa thinks about his death. It makes her a kind of afraid and sad. She minds what bad feelings and sad thoughts she'll have when grandpa will pass away.

My thoughts while reading:

Even I got a lot of feelings while I read this chapter. On one hand I dreamed about this remote landscape, with birds in the trees, green hills, brown cornfields and rivers that dabble into my ears. This natural silence put me in thoughts of regeneration and relaxation.
On the other hand, I felt this feeling of sadness and anxiety of Jess. To lose someone of your family you spent your whole life with is very hard to cope with. Even if this is expected to happen.
But I think that are thinks that every teenager becoming an adult has to cope with and it's a fact, as grandpa said: "Everything changes [...]. Nothing lasts forever." (p.21)

Chapter 1

The Content:

Since 6:30 Jess, a teenager girl, is out there in a pool for swimming. Nearly every morning she goes out with her grandpa in order to swim. It's her passion and she won a lot of medals. After 20 minutes grandpa wants to call her out. But Jess doesn't understand why and so she continues her lanes. She only minds when it is too late. Her grandpa gets a heart attack and crashes into the pool. He is taken to a hospital. Nevertheless after three days the stubborn character of grandpa takes him out of the hospital back home because one day later, the 20th August, the family wants to go to summer holidays. They'll drive to the place where grandpa was grown up, so there is no way to force him to stay at home at least.
Everyone of the family, dad, the only son of grandpa, Jess and mum are worried about this kind of insistence.
However, this is not the only aspect to think about. Grandpa begins to draw a new picture. It's called "River Boy" and it seems to be very mysterious because of two certain facts. Grandpa has never named one of his pictures before and the picture has no boy in it. There is no living creature on it. Nothing that indicates a boy. Only a big river, the sky and banks are on it. However, Grandpa decides to work on it during their holidays. So Jess will put it in the car.

My thoughts while reading:

The first chapter shows that those things I expected aren't definitely wrong. The story seems to be very mysterious. While reading I had a lot of thoughts dealing with this stubborn behaviour of the grandpa. I ask myself whether there's an answer for that unusual attitude and I think I'll found the answer in the mysterious picture called "River Boy". It needs to be important for the story. There's no other way because the novel itself is even called the same.
I also thought about the role of Jess. What role does she play in this novel? I think to be a muse for a picture, that seems to be an important role and also her detailed description in the first chapter militates in favour for that.
In my mind the holidays will play a certain role in the story because the author raises most of intention to that event.

Before Reading the Novel

Before I start to read the novel I would like to say some words about what I expect:

When I look at the cover of the novel I see a mysterious blue shadow of boy or girl (I think it's a boy because the book itself is called river boy) jumping down in a lake within a waterfall. Down on the left side there is a black rock. In the background on the picture there are lots of green trees and plants. So all in all it looks like a mysterious place in a rain forest.
Another aspect is the backside of the cover. There is the same picture without this shadow of the boy. That really makes me thinking about whether it is an aim of the novel's cover. I can't know. However I think this boy, the river boy, will have to have an important role in the book.
Furthermore the style of lettering on the cover looks really mysterious. "Tim Bowler" looks like as if it is written by a nib (Schreibfeder). The next line "winner of the Carnegie Medal" (the medal itself is also on the book's cover on the upper right side) is written in the same style. Only the colour changes from yellow into purple. The title of the novel is printed on the cover in silver. This purposes that it catches the eye of the reader.
To precise those facts into my expectation of the novel I say the novel will be really mysterious and a "river boy" will play a certain role in it. That's what I expect.