Middle grade - YA (chapter book read in the 80s). Kid (I think it was a boy) works on a riverboat. Wants basketball shoes - gets them and wears them. Ends up jumping in the river to save someone ruining the shoes, and grandpa finds out.

[Nat]

Middle grade - YA (chapter book read in the 80s). Kid (I think it was a boy) works on a riverboat because he wants to buy basketball shoes - somehow gets them and wears them (before he was allowed to?) Ends up jumping in the river to save someone - ruining the shoes (that he wasn’t supposed to be wearing yet), and grandpa finds out. That’s all I’ve got….