This was a beautiful read. It reminded me of classics like Watership Down and Redwall. There was a subtle environmental message, but it didn't feel too on the nose. It mixed nature with fantasy and a heartwarming tale of family.

This is a lovely book with a feel of Bramley hedge or watership down and quite different to the (many) other Holly Webb books we have read together. The full page grey scale illustrations are beautiful (though they do rather it interrupt the story when you are reading aloud and have to stop so everyone can look at the picture), and it has the clear and easy writing style that you expect from Holly Webb. We loved learning about otters and beavers, and enjoyed singing silken’s songs together.

A great book which we would thoroughly recommend.

This is such a lovely story. I actually received and read book 2 in this series from Netgalley before I was granted access to book 1. But I was delighted to receive the notification informing me that I could now access the first segment in the saga of Sedge and Silken, and their respective communities.

Silken is small and weak, something of a misfit in her beaver lodge. She doesn't look or sound like other members of her community, but her father - the leader of the beavers - is fiercely protective of his daughter, and Silken does the best she can to meet the expectations of her family.

Meanwhile, at the otters' holt, Sedge is a young cub, expected to someday be the heir to his mother, who is currently the leader of the otters. He has dim memories from the past, which indicate that something terrible happened, but he is not entirely sure of the nature of that event.

The story is told from their two points of view, and as each undertakes their own journey, their paths inexorably converge. Once they meet, friendships will be formed, secrets will be shared, and a terrible danger will threaten the two young creatures...

Holly Webb is an extremely talented writer and there are beautiful illustrations to go with the story. Like book 2, I really enjoyed this story, and recommend it for young readers - particularly those who love animals.

Under an ancient willow tree lies The Holt, the place where the otters of Green River live. Sedge the otter is the Queen’s son, he doesn’t care much for his royal duties & responsibilities. He’s always been suspicious that the rest of the otters at The Holt are keeping something from him…

Downstream, Silken lives in The Stronghold with her beaver family. She’s always felt out of place, like she doesn’t belong. She’s the only beaver who can sing & she can’t gnaw through wood like the others…

Both Sedge & Silken find themselves leaving home to find out the truth and set off on separate journeys into the river. But trouble is brewing. The river is rising and The Holt, along with many other animal homes, is at risk of flooding. Will Sedge & Silken find out the truth in time to save Green River?

The Story Of Green River was such a wholesome read. Such a great book for children to explore river ecosystems and the animals that live there. Highlights how important our rivers are for the survival of beavers, otters and other river dwellers like kingfishers, water voles and swans, whilst also shining a light on how vital these animals are for the health of our rivers.

Thank you to @netgalley @hachettekids & @orionbooks this was an all round wonderful read.

Gorgeous read for younger readers.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read this title in exchange for my feedback.

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.

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. Four and a half stars.

This was such a quick, easy and cute read that kids will love. it was compelling and engaging and I took the characters to my heart. A lovely read.