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Little Fur #4
Riddle of Green
The conclusion of the Little Fur quartet!
When Little Fur loses touch with the flow of earth magic, she knows that she must regain it, whatever it takes. A visit to the prophetic Sett Owl makes it clear that Little Fur has to embark on the most dangerous of all her adventures and follow the dreams of a lemur. Accompanied by new companions including the lemur, a horde of lemmings, and a panther, Little Fur leaves the human city and sets out across the great salten sea. What Little Fur discovers about the past and the future on this most dangerous, yet most personal and rewarding journey, makes for an exciting and moving conclusion to this eco-fantasy quartet.
Isobelle Carmody, one of Australia’s most popular fantasy authors, continues to charm readers with Little Fur—a heroine who never ceases to surprise us with her determination and sensitivity.
When Little Fur loses touch with the flow of earth magic, she knows that she must regain it, whatever it takes. A visit to the prophetic Sett Owl makes it clear that Little Fur has to embark on the most dangerous of all her adventures and follow the dreams of a lemur. Accompanied by new companions including the lemur, a horde of lemmings, and a panther, Little Fur leaves the human city and sets out across the great salten sea. What Little Fur discovers about the past and the future on this most dangerous, yet most personal and rewarding journey, makes for an exciting and moving conclusion to this eco-fantasy quartet.
Isobelle Carmody, one of Australia’s most popular fantasy authors, continues to charm readers with Little Fur—a heroine who never ceases to surprise us with her determination and sensitivity.
256 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2008
4 people are currently reading
252 people want to read
About the author
Isobelle Carmody
104 books1,738 followersIsobelle Carmody began the first novel of her highly acclaimed Obernewtyn Chronicles while she was still in high school. The series has established her at the forefront of fantasy writing in Australia.
In addition to her young-adult novels, such as the Obernewtyn Chronicles and Alyzon Whitestarr, Isobelle's published works include several middle-grade fantasies. Her still-unfinished Gateway Trilogy has been favorably compared to The Wizard of Oz and the Chronicles of Narnia. The Little Fur quartet is an eco-fantasy starring a half-elf, half-troll heroine and is fully illustrated by the author herself.
Isobelle's most recent picture book, Magic Night, is a collaboration with illustrator Declan Lee. Originally published in Australia as The Wrong Thing, the book features an ordinary housecat who stumbles upon something otherworldly. Across all her writing, Isobelle shows a talent for balancing the mundane and the fantastic.
Isobelle was the guest of honor at the 2007 Australian National Science Fiction Convention. She has received numerous honors for her writing, including multiple Aurealis Awards and Children's Book Council of Australia Awards.
She currently divides her time between her home on the Great Ocean Road in Australia and her travels abroad with her partner and daughter.
Librarian's note: Penguin Australia is publishing the Obernewtyn Chronicles in six books, and The Stone Key is book five. In the United States and Canada this series is published by Random House in eight books; this Penguin Australia book is split into two parts and published as Wavesong (Book Five) and The Stone Key (Book Six).
In addition to her young-adult novels, such as the Obernewtyn Chronicles and Alyzon Whitestarr, Isobelle's published works include several middle-grade fantasies. Her still-unfinished Gateway Trilogy has been favorably compared to The Wizard of Oz and the Chronicles of Narnia. The Little Fur quartet is an eco-fantasy starring a half-elf, half-troll heroine and is fully illustrated by the author herself.
Isobelle's most recent picture book, Magic Night, is a collaboration with illustrator Declan Lee. Originally published in Australia as The Wrong Thing, the book features an ordinary housecat who stumbles upon something otherworldly. Across all her writing, Isobelle shows a talent for balancing the mundane and the fantastic.
Isobelle was the guest of honor at the 2007 Australian National Science Fiction Convention. She has received numerous honors for her writing, including multiple Aurealis Awards and Children's Book Council of Australia Awards.
She currently divides her time between her home on the Great Ocean Road in Australia and her travels abroad with her partner and daughter.
Librarian's note: Penguin Australia is publishing the Obernewtyn Chronicles in six books, and The Stone Key is book five. In the United States and Canada this series is published by Random House in eight books; this Penguin Australia book is split into two parts and published as Wavesong (Book Five) and The Stone Key (Book Six).
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 14, 2021
Wow… I feel warm and fuzzy and full of hope right now. Such good books these… it’s like I just found a handful of diamonds...
I feel like these books are important and should be read to children along with Narnia and the like. They are brimming with wisdom and gentleness… I am actually blown away. I am 30, these books are probably aimed at 7/8 year olds, but there is so much depth here that I genuinely LOVED them, all on my own terms.
While they are full of wholesome messages about compassion, peaceful co-existence, honouring the earth, sacrifice and hope, and so much more, never once did I feel like an agenda was being pushed on me, never once did I feel condescended to. Isobelle Carmody really is a genius.
I also just loved how these last two instalments answered the mystery of Little Fur’s parentage, and brought everything back round. Very satisfying conclusion, once again full of that grand wonder and magical atmosphere that has infused each one of these books. I also found the way Little Fur changed after being severed from the earth magic absolutely fascinating; it really made me think about how we are, how humans act and behave, the problems we have, why we might have them.
Honestly, why don’t these books have higher ratings? They are rich, rich, rich. Full of all the kinds of the things I search for in the stories I read — wonder, tension, hope, wisdom, surprising solutions, characters that make me laugh and cry…. And they are utterly unique.
So when are we going to get a beautiful, animated, adaptation of these stories? Can someone send these to the studio that made Arcane? Would love to see this show in that art style. Or even an anime would be awesome!
I feel like these books are important and should be read to children along with Narnia and the like. They are brimming with wisdom and gentleness… I am actually blown away. I am 30, these books are probably aimed at 7/8 year olds, but there is so much depth here that I genuinely LOVED them, all on my own terms.
While they are full of wholesome messages about compassion, peaceful co-existence, honouring the earth, sacrifice and hope, and so much more, never once did I feel like an agenda was being pushed on me, never once did I feel condescended to. Isobelle Carmody really is a genius.
I also just loved how these last two instalments answered the mystery of Little Fur’s parentage, and brought everything back round. Very satisfying conclusion, once again full of that grand wonder and magical atmosphere that has infused each one of these books. I also found the way Little Fur changed after being severed from the earth magic absolutely fascinating; it really made me think about how we are, how humans act and behave, the problems we have, why we might have them.
Honestly, why don’t these books have higher ratings? They are rich, rich, rich. Full of all the kinds of the things I search for in the stories I read — wonder, tension, hope, wisdom, surprising solutions, characters that make me laugh and cry…. And they are utterly unique.
So when are we going to get a beautiful, animated, adaptation of these stories? Can someone send these to the studio that made Arcane? Would love to see this show in that art style. Or even an anime would be awesome!
November 27, 2019
A Riddle of Green is the fourth and final book in the Legend of Little Fur series, by Isobelle Carmody.
Little Fur, the elf troll, is a great healer who must stay on green things to keep in contact with the earth spirit. But after a fight with greeps, the flow is severed.
Now Little Fur must go on her most dangerous journey over the sea, in the company of a mad lemur, some lemmings, and an animal shapeshifter, to try and bring back her connection with the earth spirit.
But she will learn more than she bargained for, and must accomplish the task that she was born for.
Adventurous and magical, sweet and imaginative, this series ended far too quickly.
January 10, 2021
The end of the Little Fur series was a little disappointing. It felt a little like it dragged more than the others and was also a bit stranger. I found the ending sequence with the Earth Spirit to be a bit disconnected from the rest of the Legend, even though it was an attempt to explain and tie of all the loose strings.
August 6, 2020
oh my god this book is amazing. this is the one in the series that i remember the most. i love little fur's journey and i love how the book ended. i would have loved to see more of her journey though. the book ended very open ended. i feel like there is so much more story to tell.
May 2, 2020
Final book of a sweet series. Complicated and dark for the target audience, but that's what makes the series special.
March 12, 2016
The fourth (and possibly final) entry in this series took me a while to get into. It's been a REALLY long time since I read Mystery of Wolves and I found that I couldn't remember some of the incidents referred to. It seemed to me an inordinate amount of time was spent hashing over previous incidents without any real info about them. It was very frustrating. But after we got past that, the book was excellent as usual. This one felt a bit darker than the previous entries, but the writing was just lovely and the illustrations really add to the story.
December 19, 2012
A well structured and enjoyable read. Many of the questions from previous books are answered as further depth is added to the reality that Little Fur is part of. If this were to be the end of The Legend of Little Fur I would be saddened, but content that the story came to a fitting conclusion.
August 21, 2010
This was a really nice easy to read book with a charming story. The characters were sweet and gentle, and the story was full of magic and nature. The first three books were good too.
December 2, 2015
An interesting and dramatic end to a fine tale.
January 28, 2021
A satisfying end to an enchanting series.
April 7, 2017
A Riddle of Green was a great conclusion to the Legend of Little Fur series. The Little Fur series follows the elftroll Little Fur as she undertakes adventures to bring healing to various animals and the earth.
A Riddle of Green was the most emotional book in the series. In it we discovered more about the origins of Little Fur and why she was brought into the world. The story explored sacrifices and why people would make sacrifices. I also think that it showed the potency a mother's love can have and the effect that it has.
In terms of the plot, I felt that A Riddle of Green was more slow-paced than the others. There was a lot of time spent travelling and there wasn't a huge amount of action. I enjoyed this though because it allowed for the exploration of the affect a certain event had on Little Fur, and how it changed her character. I felt that this story was much more of a character driven one than the previous books.
I loved all the characters in this book. I loved Little Fur. I loved that she was a healer and that she wished to heal everything that was hurt. I loved how powerful her character growth was. I loved Ofred the dreaming Lemur and the hordes of Lemmings that revered his dreams. I loved Danger the escaped Panther who went on a quest to rediscover himself. I loved Sorrow and Nobody and Crow. All the characters made a place in my heart and I loved reading their journeys.
Isobelle Carmody has to be one of my all time favourite writers. I love the way that she crafts her sentences and her stories. I find her descriptions being vivid without taking away from the pace of the story. I ended up tabbing heaps of her sentences just because I loved the way she described things. Her writing in this story could almost be described as whimsical and fantastical.
I enjoyed this story and I am very glad that I ended up finishing it. The last two books of the series were definitely the strongest in my opinion. Overall, I would probably give the series a 4 or 4.5 star rating and I would definitely recommend it for kids and kids at heart to read.
A Riddle of Green was the most emotional book in the series. In it we discovered more about the origins of Little Fur and why she was brought into the world. The story explored sacrifices and why people would make sacrifices. I also think that it showed the potency a mother's love can have and the effect that it has.
In terms of the plot, I felt that A Riddle of Green was more slow-paced than the others. There was a lot of time spent travelling and there wasn't a huge amount of action. I enjoyed this though because it allowed for the exploration of the affect a certain event had on Little Fur, and how it changed her character. I felt that this story was much more of a character driven one than the previous books.
I loved all the characters in this book. I loved Little Fur. I loved that she was a healer and that she wished to heal everything that was hurt. I loved how powerful her character growth was. I loved Ofred the dreaming Lemur and the hordes of Lemmings that revered his dreams. I loved Danger the escaped Panther who went on a quest to rediscover himself. I loved Sorrow and Nobody and Crow. All the characters made a place in my heart and I loved reading their journeys.
Isobelle Carmody has to be one of my all time favourite writers. I love the way that she crafts her sentences and her stories. I find her descriptions being vivid without taking away from the pace of the story. I ended up tabbing heaps of her sentences just because I loved the way she described things. Her writing in this story could almost be described as whimsical and fantastical.
I enjoyed this story and I am very glad that I ended up finishing it. The last two books of the series were definitely the strongest in my opinion. Overall, I would probably give the series a 4 or 4.5 star rating and I would definitely recommend it for kids and kids at heart to read.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews