The Story of Greenriver by Holly Webb
Silken and Sedge, for all their differences, have a lot in common. Silken is a girl whose father is the Master Builder of what might be the finest beaver lodge on the Greenriver. Unfortunately she is also a kind of runt figure, and as a result is patronised, and given the most tokenistic tasks when it comes to fetching wood and shoring the dam up. She also stands out for the unique artistic ability to sing. Otters like Sedge sing, but he too, as the son of the lady of the holt, has pressure on him to be a bit less feckless and more attentive to class. He, after all, will eventually inherit the job of keeping the otters safe from the wolf that both animal species fear the most, and from dreaded events like a Dark Spring.
| The Story of Greenriver by Holly Webb | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: John Lloyd
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| Summary: An outcast from a badger lodge and a young otter with vague memories of a tragedy that needs a full stop both set off on their own journeys, in what proves ultimately to be an utterly heart-warming animal drama of wide appeal. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 256 | Date: September 2022 |
| Publisher: Orion Children's Books | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1510109629 | |
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This, then, is a story with animal characters, the likes of which I'd not read for decades until this and another came out the same day. Both these animals can talk, and do human-styled things – there is a talk of a beaver chef, and they noticeably do things with food such as we might. Otters have decorations and daggers in pouches about themselves. Oh, and just because they're critters doesn't mean they can't have mythologies. And it's partly down to myth, and the need to right a huge wrong, that makes the first out of the two – Silken and Sedge – leave home.
And here we come to a huge quandary. Because there is a mahoosive surprise in this book, that just throws a lot of what we thought we knew about things right up in the air. But it won't be a surprise if you just do a simple thing like look at the finished front cover. (The joys of getting these things before that's finalised.) So I have to carry on with the rest of this write-up, saying what the book is about and what it does, all while ignoring the patently obvious. Oh, and as is par for the course with me, struggling to say just how wonderful this gets.
I certainly was enjoying this before the Big Surprise. Both young animals are likeable, and the way they are clearly both on the river of the title and will leave home, with the aim to somehow in their own sweet way meet in the middle, is very interesting. After the Big Switch you could say some of the plot is made a lot more obvious, but the book is still happy enough with that, partly because somehow or other a heck of a lot can be read into this.
This is a story about acceptance, about taking on differences. It becomes to be about identity politics. It's definitely an ecological lesson. It's about home, and family, and the perils of inheriting power and expectation from within the family and ones tribe. And at times here I felt this was all a little too obvious, and over-stuffed, and all perhaps a little too clever-clever as a result.
But those last few chapters... The story somewhat comes to encompass magic, and I dare say there's magic in the telling, too. The song with the audience? My god, that was a powerful beat, only surpassed by the closing scenes. The writing – a moderately large print and less than excessive reading time – suggested this was best for the under-elevens, but at its peak this surpasses all age bracketing, and having been a steady grower ends as just a marvel for all. I had thought the animal story that coincided with this alerted me to the fact I wasn't a match for the genre (and my long-forgotten review of Eulalia! (Redwall) by Brian Jacques seems to prove that), but this, once all its charms are in play, is impossible to not love.
I must thank the publishers for my review copy.
For further reading, perhaps just turn to Holly Webb's large back catalogue, and stick a pin in it.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Story of Greenriver by Holly Webb at Amazon.com.
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