Pilu of the Woods ’s pages are filled with Nguyen’s charming and folksy illustrations, art that’s heartwarming and soul soothing from cover to cover. Striking up a cautious friendship, Will convinces Pilu to let her help her find her way home, a magical Magnolia grove with a unique connection to Will’s past. A freckle-faced, pink-cheeked little girl with long green, leafy hair, and a frilly little white frock. It’s there, past babbling brooks and ancient oaks that Will encounters a weeping little girl tucked into hollow tree. One afternoon after a fight at school turns into another fight at home with Linnea, Will flees into the forest. Her big sister Linnea doesn’t get her, her University Professor father is constantly working, and Willow’s only true friend, and partner in exploring the woods, is her cream-colored Shiba Inu, Chicory. The woods have a peace about them that is powerful enough to curb the stormy swells of emotions that rage throughout her.ĭespite her youth, Will has a keen awareness of the world … just not always the tools and support she needs to cope with it.
After suffering a terrible loss, the woods are one of the few places that Will isn’t smothered by grief and shame. In Mai Nguyen’s debut graphic novel Pilu of the Woods the androgynous and bespectacled “Will” is of the precocious child achetype–she has an affinity for recognizing even obscure plants, and has facts about just about any of the flora out of there in the lush forest beyond her cozy white cottage. Pilu of the Woods ’s protagonist, Japanese-American elementary schooler Willow has monsters.
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