Shy Willow

by Cat Min

Overview

Willow is shy. VERY shy.

Her home is in an abandoned mailbox, and she'd rather stay put. Outside kids scream and soccer balls collide, trees look like monsters, and rain is noisy in a scary kind of way. It's much nicer to stay inside, drawing. But then a young boy drops a letter in Willow's mailbox: it's a note to the moon asking for a special favor. Willow knows that if she doesn't brave the world outside, the letter will never be delivered, and the boy will be heartbroken. Should she try? Can she?

Cat Min delivers a breathtakingly illustrated story about shyness, the power of empathy, and what it means to make a friend.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781646140350
Publisher:	Levine Querido
Publication date:	02/16/2021
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	374,018
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Cat Min is an illustrator, animator, and writer. Cat grew up as a shy kid in Hong Kong, where she spent most of her childhood drawing and making comic books out of printer paper and staples with her best friend. She studied animation and film at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, and completed the Illustration & Visual Storytelling Summer Residency Program at the School of Visual Arts in New York. She is also a member of SCBWI. Her (not so) guilty pleasures are: McDonald's french fries, sappy romance comics, mobile escape game apps, visual novels, and all things cheese.

Editorial Reviews

11/23/2020

A timid bunny named Willow must venture outside her comfort zone in Min’s quiet, whimsical debut. In an abandoned mailbox decorated with taped-on sketches and flora, shy Willow hides from the noisy and chaotic world outside, her long ears occasionally poking through the mail slot. When an envelope is slipped into her cozy home, Willow discovers it’s a letter to the moon from a boy hoping to arrange a surprise for his mother’s birthday. Moved by the boy’s thoughtfulness, Willow determines to help deliver the message, even if the long journey means she’ll need to travel far from the mailbox’s security. To reach the moon, she tries jumping, climbing, and even catching a ride on a magnificent phoenixlike bird, until in an act of selflessness, Willow makes a final, improbable attempt that proves successful, slowly propelling the tale to a heartening, if predictable, conclusion. Employing watercolor and colored pencil, Min creates gentle scenes—the most striking of which are wordless—that radiate with hints of sunset pink, lending a luminous quality that befits this earnest tale of bravery begetting self-realization. Ages 4–7. Agent: Maria Vicente, P.S. Literary. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Evokes a richly mysterious night; a night in which dreams could come true.” -The New York Times,


“A visually satisfying sequence of art that perfectly facilitates this tale for repeated read-alouds with mom.”-The Classroom Bookshelf (An SLJ Blog),


“Luminous...an earnest tale of bravery begetting self-realization.” -Publishers Weekly,


“Splendid....A lovable protagonist” -Horn Book,


[STAR] “A dreamlike adventure…A warm and wondrous adventure for armchair, or high chair, travelers.” -Booklist (starred review),


“A memorable and moving read. A lovely mix of realistic and fantastical.” -BookPage,

From the Publisher

12/01/2020

PreS-K—Willow, a white rabbit, lives in an abandoned mailbox where she draws sketches and feels safe from the world. When a letter drops in the mailbox with a special birthday request addressed to the moon from a boy named Theo, Willow knows she must deliver it in spite of her fears. Willow ventures out, testing her courage and making many failed attempts to reach the moon, jumping high, climbing a mountain, and even hitching a ride on a bird. Finally, she sacrifices pages from her sketchbook to fashion a balloon to float up to the moon and successfully deliver the letter. The moon rewards her by fulfilling the request to shine brilliantly for Theo's mother. Willow basks in her deed, and "the warmth of the moonlight spread through Willow's chest." Pencil illustrations provide detail, while soft washes of watercolor in twilight colors of pink, blue, and lavender create a soothing palette, though the outline of Willow in red strikes an odd note. Sketches from Willow's notebook adorn the endpapers and provide a window into Willow's fears and newfound friendship with Theo. VERDICT A shy rabbit shows bravery and ingenuity in a story that addresses shyness and determination. An additional purchase.—Ramarie Beaver, formerly at Plano P.L., TX

School Library Journal

2021-02-09
Willow, a painfully shy rabbit who lives in an abandoned mailbox, plucks up her courage to journey on the grandest adventure ever.

The outdoors can be scary for a small rabbit, and Willow’s favorite quiet and cozy place to be is inside her cheerily multihued mailbox, where her pencil drawings are tacked all over the walls. One day, a letter flutters in through the slot—a letter addressed to the moon. In it, a child’s scrawl asks the moon to please shine big and bright for his mother’s birthday tomorrow. Alas, who will deliver the letter to the moon on such short notice? Could Willow do it? Min’s sweet illustrations convey Willow’s hesitation, her determination, her fear—and her dejection as the moon proves difficult to reach. Even after a wondrous soaring flight on birdback (so hopeful!) is thwarted by a gust of wind, she perseveres, voyaging to the moon in a way only she and her trusty sketchbook together could have achieved. Willow is a white rabbit, and the few humans depicted have light skin and cartoony features with dots for eyes. But Min’s soft, colorful illustrations (as well as a rabbit protagonist making her way in a human world) give readers a magical feeling from the beginning, and the climax is lovely to behold. They make this otherwise slight story worth a look.

Whimsical and charming illustrations (literally) elevate this simple tale. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews