This is a beautiful and heartbreaking story. My eye was caught because the description compared it to Hilda which I’ve fallen in love with recently, but it’s definitely its own story.
Willow is a girl wrestling with her own demons and after a fight with her sister and running away she comes across Pilu, a tree spirit who also ran away from home, and she offers to help take her back home. I loved the manifestation of Willow’s emotions as little demons that she tries to contain, it’s an image that kids can understand and grasp.
The book touches on loss, grief, coping with strong emotions, and strength. Willow thinks the last one means she can’t let anyone see her slip but on this beautiful emotional journey, that definitely made me cry a bit, she comes to learn otherwise.
The art is beautiful (so so beautiful) and bright and colorful. It’s very attention grabbing and I loved it.

This book is so cute. This is so adorable. I loved every second of it! Pilu of the Woods is about Willow, a young girl, who just got into a fight with her older sister. Out of anger, Willow runs away and finds herself in the woods near her home. There she finds Pilu, a tree nymph who is lost. Willow embarks on a journey through the woods to try and help pilu find her way back home. Along the way, they form an unbreakable bond and learn just how similar every one can be.

I honestly really loved reading this book. It was so adorable and I loved the artwork. It was like watercolor which I found fit the story perfectly. And the story itself was so cute and amazing. I really loved how it got darker in the middle when they were talking about the “monsters” that everyone gets. It surprised me to see that I found some part of me in this Middle-grade graphic novel. Truly an amazing book ♡

This graphic novel is seriously one of the sweetest things I ever read. It's a beautifully drawn Middle Grade story about grief and family and how to deal with anger. The messages in this were not only important but also perfectly illustrated and presented. I read it on one go and it was very enjoyable, even for someone who isn't the main audience.

Such a cute story with heart and even some interesting information about forest life. Can't recommend it enough, especially for kids and everyone who enjoys a beautiful, sweet graphic novel.

Gorgeous artwork and a wonderful metaphor for dealing with hard feelings before they become monstrous.

I tend to read a lot of graphic novels, especially those meant for younger readers or middle grade readers. <i>Pilu of the Woods</i> is one such title, and the description appealed to me in much the same way many others have. This story of a little girl who is trying to find compassion both for herself and for those around her is so very endearing, especially when it seems that our world is in great need of compassion. It just goes to show that even little monsters need to be cared for rather than shut away.

Mai K. Nguyen's art style is one of the most adorable I've seen with a blend of realism and whimsy, and it reminds me of the <i>Hilda</i> series. Nguyen keeps the color tones very natural throughout the graphic novel which adds to the overall lush forest setting. Because of this palette, even when the story takes on darker tones, there is also an air of calm that will hopefully ease younger readers' concerns during the climactic scenes. It's simply beautiful in both color and story.

I highly recommend this graphic novel for readers both young and older, and I think <i>Pilu of the Woods</i> would be a great means of exploring emotions and sharing thoughts and feelings.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, for this free eARC.

Pilu of the Woods is such a heartwarming story, with wonderful messages about forgiveness, and learning how to cope with emotions.

I enjoyed this quick read and loved the illustrations! They were absolutely beautiful! As a debut author, I look forward to more from Nguyen.

Absolutely beautiful artwork tells the story of young Willow, struggling to cope with her emotions after a devastating loss. Through her friendship with the forest spirit Pilu, Willow learns that her heart is more like her beloved forest than she'd realized.
Charming, sweet, and dynamically illustrated.

*I received a ebook copy of this graphic novel for free through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 4/5.

Struggling with her emotions Willow ventures into the nearby woods, a peaceful place she can escape to. Once there she meets the lost tree spirit Pilu, and gives herself the task of helping her find her way back home, as the journey goes on Willow is forced to comfort her own feelings.

I really enjoyed reading this, the art is beautiful and so is the story. It’s perfect for younger readers but also a delightful read for older ones too. The novel takes a fresh look at grief, and how we manage, express and often bottle up our emotions. The characters are all endearing, and all had a key part in making this novel so emotive.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel, I often find with graphic novels I don’t have much to say which was the case with this, but this type of novel speaks for itself. I would recommend this for fans of children’s fictional graphic novels.

This is exactly the book my tender heart needed right now. In this slim graphic novel by debut Mai K. Nguyen (one to watch!), a young girl named Willow struggles to come to terms with her mother's tragic passing. After getting into a fight with her older sister, she runs to the woods with her pup, Chicory, and her knowledge of plants gleaned from adventures with her parents. There, she meets a forest spirit named Pilu and must escort her home, to the magnolia grove that Willow's mother loved. The forest environments are particularly well-drawn and colored, and I loved the characters' design, the hand-lettered aesthetic, and the contrast of bright-hued nature with darker, bottled-up feelings.

The most striking thing about this book is its artistic depiction of negative feelings as small monsters. Willow literally bottles hers up, not dealing with her grief, anger, or pain. Throughout her journey, she must come to terms with the fact that strength comes through kindness, compassion, and emotional awareness, not shutting one's emotions off altogether. Because of this message, and the easy-to-grasp symbolism of the small monsters that grow out of control as Willow's emotions grow more intense, this book is perfect for young and old readers alike.

This is such a poignant and heartwarming tale of family, love, loss and home. The story is perfectly complemented by the wonderful illustrations. I particularly loved the way grief/anxiety/depression are portrayed and illustrated here. I think this would be an excellent story to help kids understand loss and mental health.

This book was adorable, and heartfelt, and just made me feel so much. I loved the mystical / magical vibe of the Woods, and the Magnolia trees were an extra special touch for me. I have family history with a love for Magnolia's, so that made me connect to this so much more. I already have it on my "to buy" list after it releases

I received this an ARC copy from Netgalley.
I gave this a 4.5 out of five stars.

I really enjoyed the story and the art of this. It shows the loss of a parent and the hardships with it and being lonely. This is a middle grade graphic novel. Made me feel sad. I liked this and would continue with it if there was another to come out. I recommend this to people of all ages.

Beautifully crafted, strongly messaged fantastical graphic novels for young readers are always welcome (and needed) in the world, and "Pilu of the Woods" is a great exemplar of the form. Nguyen's art is adorable, the story unique, and the point one worth getting.

The graphic novel Pilu of the Woods follows Willow, a young girl who has a fight with her sister and runs of into the forest. There she meets Pilu, a lost tree spirit who has also had a fight with her family and cannot find the way home. Willow decides to help her, and together they journey through the forest battling demons inside of themselves.

This graphic novel was very, very sweet. The drawings were so cute, and I loved the artstyle! The message this book gives is to not fight your inner demons, but to accept them and work with them. I think this came across nicely. The characters were also lovely, the dialogue easygoing. I seriously feel like I need a physical copy one day so I can stare at it more thoroughly. If you like sweet graphic novels and wants something touching, definitely pick this up!

Thank you so much to Netgalley for providing me with an eArc.

Pilu of the woods is a book that is just heartwarming even though it portray how hard it is sometimes to act when things just did not go the way we expect. But Pilu story is full of feeling and touch you in a gentle way. I think it's a wonderful story that not to be missed. Mai's illustration that accompany the story make it even more complete and soooo lovely. I highly recommend it! I will read more books by the author <3

A comic for young readers tackling heavy topics like anger, grief, loss and forgiving yourself. The story is told through the touching friendship between two young girls, both looking for love and acceptance in a world where they feel lost. The art style is adorable and the colours are perfect for it. Beautiful graphic novel!

I love this book. Simple yet meaningful. It will teach our kids not to bottle up their feeling, it’s okay to feel angry but don’t be aggresive. And remember that your family will always be there for you.

It’s very interesting read with detailed illustrations. Definitely make list to be read with/to my toddler.

Thank you netgalley for providing the arc.

I wasn't expecting to cry in a coffee shop today but alas, here I am. This book is a gift to unlocking our understanding of feelings and emotions for those young and old. It explains how ignoring our feelings doesn't make them go away in a way we can all benefit from. The illustrations add to the description of feelings and it is quite simply one of the better explanations I've seen and heard. At no point does this graphic novel talk down to the reader or expect too little of them. This easy-to-read story is one young readers can come back to time and again. I'm fully confident that everyone who reads this book will walk away better for it.

Love love love! Great message and beautiful story. I really love the way the sounds of the forest are illustrated into the pictures.

I really didn't like this one at all. The drawings weren't my thing, the story was both depressing and confusing, and the book was riddled with typos and odd style choices.

Pilu of the Woods, despite the title and the cover illustration, is actually about a girl named Willow who lives with her father and older sister, Linnea. She had a mother once, but she's dead now, and Willow is always getting in trouble because she doesn't know how to deal with her feelings. She bottles them up (literally) until she just has to let them out in a fit of anger and/or violence. This part of the book had me confused at first, because there are these drawings of little creatures in bottles throughout the panels, and I wasn't sure what that was about for the longest time. The bit about the mother is also confusing, because it almost seems like her death is what caused Willow to become the way she is. But that's not the case, because her mother tells her (before she dies) to always treat others with kindness and compassion, and even makes Willow promise this. It seems like a weird promise to have your child make, unless you know you're about to die (but that's not the case; it's implied the mother died in a car accident on a rainy night). So Willow gets even more screwed up by her emotions because she's trying to keep this promise to her dead mother. She bottles up all her feelings until they come exploding out, taking actual physical form in the woods and threatening her and her new friend, Pilu.

Despite her name being in the title, I actually think Pilu is kind of unnecessary. Aside from agreeing with Willow about how tough feelings can be, she doesn't really add much to the story or offer any interesting insights or revelations. I guess she's almost like a Manic Pixie Dream Girl in that respect, since her problems are only there so that Willow can come to her own realizations and solve her own problems. She's some sort of nature sprite who runs away from her magnolia grove because she feels ignored. But it's actually Willow who knows more about the woods, and teaches Pilu a few things about it. (Some of those bits were the most interesting parts of the book; I wish there had been a little bit more of that and a lot less of the girls trudging through the woods in silence.)

That last point brings me to one of the most annoying things about this book, and that's how it's all put together. Aside from many typos and annoying onomatopoeia that uses repetition of silent letters (I can't stand it when people write that something is "cuttteee!", so I really wasn't pleased to see things like "RRUSSSTTTLLEEE" in the panels), the drawings are littered with near-empty speech bubbles with nothing but ellipses to show when the characters are being silent. Call me crazy, but wouldn't not having them say anything show the same thing just as well with less clutter? Also, the speech bubbles are all over the place. Sometimes they're smooth, sometimes they're jagged (which I think signified shouting), and sometimes they look like clouds... which seems odd, because I usually think of cloud shapes as thought bubbles, while here they're used for actual speech... for no real reason that I could see.

I don't like the drawings here, either. They're too cutesy, and the author seems to like drawing tears and snot just a little too much (there's a panel near the beginning of the book that has Willow snorting back a slurpy booger that just about made me gag). One scene also has Willow sharing a peanut butter sandwich with her brand-new friend, which I thought was kind of irresponsible; teaching kids to share peanut butter with someone of unknown allergy status is not the best idea.

Overall, I'm disappointed. The story's premise is okay, but there's far too much crying going on and not enough about actually dealing with negative feelings. (Willow eventually comes to realize that she has to acknowledge those feelings and not keep them bottled up, but it's not really shown how she's going to do that.) And with so many typos and weird style choices for the format, it's not one of the stronger graphic novels I've read.