In a Nutshell: A beautiful middle-grade fantasy with a strong environment-oriented theme that shows the interconnection of nature and the lack of awareness in humans. Great protagonist, wonderful animals, strong themes about nature. Much recommended!

Plot Preview:
Eleven-year-old Willodeen has loves all animals, but her favourites are the beasts hated by everyone else. Known as “screechers”, these beasts are considered pests by the village of Perchance, and there is even a bounty for those who kill them.
Lately, Perchance has been struck by several natural disasters such as forest fires and droughts. But the biggest loss to them has come from the loss of tourist revenue after the fames hummingbears stopped migrating to the village.
Willodeen, along with her friend Connor, are keen to investigate why hummingbears are no longer interested in Perchance, and also to save screechers from extinction. Will the duo succeed in their goals?
The story comes to us mostly from Willodeen’s first person perspective.

Bookish Yays:
🐻 “The earth is old and we are not, and that is all you must remember...” – the first line of the blurb, and also a line in the first chapter. Worth remembering by all!
🐻 Willodeen – shy, sweet, determined, clever, animal-lover. A wonderful protagonist!
🐻 The friendship between Willodeen and Connor – mutually supportive and mutually beneficial.
🐻 Birdie and Mae, the two old ladies who take care of Willodeen after she is orphaned – quirky and loveable, just as fictional old ladies should be. 😉
🐻 The screechers and the hummingbears (one of each is seen on the cover): fantastic (in both its meanings)! Loved how these imaginative beings enhance the story.
🐻 The message about the symbiotic interconnection across all creatures, including humans. Also appreciate the focus on human cruelty towards animals, the thoughtless destruction of wild habitats, and the resulting endangerment of innocent creatures, especially those who “are ugly”. Kids will hopefully learn not to judge by appearance and how every individual action affects all of us.
🐻 The chapter interludes from the screecher’s point of view, written in first person – amazingly genuine in sound!
🐻 Some lovely B&W illustrations peppered throughout.


Bookish If Onlys:
🐗 I wish there had been more of the magic. The setting is clearly fantastical, so to have only one scene where something magical happened is disappointing, even though the scene was amazing.
🐗 If only the book had some other title, or a modified cover design! Keeping in mind this author’s other works such as ‘the One and Only Ivan’, ‘Crenshaw’, and ’Odder’, I had assumed all this time that Willodeen would be the boar-like creature on the cover. To see that the book is named after its young human protagonist was a surprise, especially as the title and the cover then don’t work in harmony.

In short, no major complaints. I loved almost every bit of this story and would want every middle-grader to pick this beautiful story and understand how we are all in this together. It goes at a slower pace than usual MG fiction, so keep that in mind if pace is an important factor in your (or your child’s) book choices.

Heartily recommended! Check out the triggers though. They might be a bit too severe for some children.

4.5 stars.

My thanks to Welbeck Publishing UK and NetGalley for the DRC of “Willodeen”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.


Content warning: parental death, fire, animal shooting.

I read Willodeen to my 7 year old. We both loved it! It is a beautiful story of how everything in nature is there for a reason and we as humans need to stop messing with it. My son got very invested in the Screecher population and it's dwindling numbers, there were a couple times we needed to stop reading because he got upset and worried but we persisted and he was happy with how it ended. We will definitely be reading more books by Applegate! I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to read an advanced copy of Willodeen. Thank you!

This was a brief but well-built world that was introduced to us that is perfect for a younger audience to step into the world of fantasy with interesting questions being raised.
The time period that the book is set in is something like an old-timey world but with creatures that are a little more fantastical than our usual, a little less than actual dragons.
Nature and people are in an imbalance, and people's behaviour is not helping mend anything! Willodeen is an odd girl, and she does not want to do things other little girls do. Instead, she spends her time studying the world around her and taking notes. Even after she loses her beloved family, it is not a habit she wants to shrug off. Soon, it seems like only she has information that might save them all. Parallely, we hear the thoughts of someone we are unsure about the existence of. Only when the plot progresses we get to see who that might be.
I highly recommend this as a great read for middle grades all the way up to adults. I did not know what I was getting into when I started, but I ended up loving the way the author wove in all the factors that make up the complex web of lives and relationships in a small and not well-off town.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

When Willodean sees a stinking Screecher exterminated she's the only one in her town that feels angry and sad. When she stands up and tells the adults it's wrong she's shouted down. But the sweet Honeybears everyone loves are dwindling in numbers and only Willowdean is bothering to listen to nature and put the pieces of the puzzle together to figure out what's happening to the environment and how the actions of the exterminators are knocking nature out of balance.

A sweet environmental novel with fantasy creatures. It has short, hooky chapters, great for hesitant readers. It has dialogue instead of much exposition, which young readers will like. I would have liked a little more description in places to really bring the world and the creatures to life, but a nice story that children aged 7 to 10 will enjoy.

A cute fantasy-esque read for kids! Wish there were more illustrations in it, but other than that it was sweet.

This is a really lovely book for younger readers (middle-grade) about ecosystems, friendship, and family. Willodeen is a shy child - heavily austism-coded - who struggles with social norms and making friends. She feels more at home in nature. She particularly loves the screechers, animals considered pests by her village and hunted for a bounty. As they start to die out, so the hummingbears, who bring tourism to her struggling village, stop coming. It's up to Willodeen - and her new friend Charlie - to figure out what's going on.

This is a sweet book and made me smile. Willodeen is a relatable character and her passion is truly endearing. The message, of course, is important too: disrupting one part of the ecosystem can bring changes throughout its whole. This would be a good way to get kids to learn about these issues indirectly, and to encourage them to apply these ideas to their own environments. The environment in the book is clearly structured and a lot of thought has gone into building it.

The illustrations in this book also deserve a mention - even in an e-book copy they were cute and really added to the story. The hummingbears in particular are so cute!

“Nature, Willodeen, knows more than we do, and she probably always will.”

Willodeen has experienced so much more than her share of loss in her short life. She’s a loner who’s much more comfortable in nature than she is around people.

“I didn’t understand my own feelings most days. I couldn’t begin to figure out why other people did the things they did.”

When Willodeen grudgingly allows Connor into her life, she finds not only a friend but an ally. Together they are magic in the way that only kindred spirits are.

Along the way, Willodeen learns to trust, and finds her voice and courage. She is the most beautiful reminder that one person truly can make a difference.

Willodeen is an absolute sweetheart, Connor is adorable and I want to adopt Duuzuu and Quinby. I loved this book even more than I hoped I would. There was sadness and some tears but my takeaway is hope.

Willodeen left me feeling like I do whenever I finish a Kate DiCamillo book, all warm and fuzzy, and wishing I could hug all of my new friends who live in its pages.

I read my first Katherine Applegate book in the 90’s; it had one of the most profound impacts on me of all the books I read as a kid. It seems I’ve got a lot to catch up on.

Charles Santoso’s illustrations are gorgeous. My favourite shows Duuzuu and Quinby reuniting.

I need to plant some blue willows so I can encourage some hummingbears to visit me.

““There’s magic in all of us,” Birdie said. “Just a bit. You’re born with it, like fingers and toes and fuzzy baby hair. Some of us make use of it. And some of us don’t.””

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Welbeck Flame, an imprint of Welbeck Children’s Limited, for the opportunity to read this book.

This book is often recommended by homeschool families, so I was excited to read it to my kids.

Willowdeen follows a young girl who enjoys being along, but has a deep connection to nature and animals. She takes it upon herself to try and restore her home and environment back to the place it once was.

This book really captures your imagination, with delightful creatures such as hummingbears, screechers and the unique willow trees.

There are a few emotional moments but overall a really enjoyable read.

Willodeen is an entirely unique book, with a powerful message about how we treat the Earth and its creatures. It’s a reminder of how we all rely on one another and how we should protect and respect the world around us. I found it a quick and enjoyable read which was certainly thought-provoking.

this is a delightful, quick read. It has a few sad moments, but the overall theme is of love of nature, even the uglier, less desirable parts of it.
Willodeen prefers her own company, especially after the loss of her whole family in a wildfire. She loves animals and nature, so spends her days roaming the woods and countryside near her home. She observes everything, but especially her favourite animal, the Screecher. Hated by the locals for their vile smell and hideous looks. But she soon realises there are none left. they've been hunted to extinction in her area.
this is a story of friendship, love of nature, and understanding the balance of the natural world.
I was quickly drawn into the story and couldn't put it down. this was a one-sitting kind of book.
definitely worth a read!

‘Nature knows more than we do, and she probably always will.’

Willodeen is a delightful book with a powerful message about caring for the environment and taking a stand for things you believe in. These are particularly poignant in our world today and will really resonate with young readers.

In the village of Perchance, natural disasters are on the rise, and the numbers of wonderful creatures that used to be found there are diminishing. The hundreds of hummingbears which used to flock to Perchance are of particular concern as the villagers’ livelihoods rely on the tourists who come to see them. Willodeen likes to keep to herself and spends most of her time outdoors observing nature, in particular screechers - an animal everybody else seems to hate. When Willodeen’s model screecher magically comes to life, it leads her to notice something about it that may reveal the answer to the missing hummingbear problem. Can Willodeen persuade the adults to take her seriously and protect the village’s future, as well as that of the screechers and hummingbears?

I heartily recommend this beautiful story filled with hope and magic.

This is such a cute book. The children adored it. Although heavily focused on environmental issues is really is a delightful adventure story. Very suitable for all of the family and a great conversation starter.

This was a sweet and relatable story about Willodeen, a girl who is clearly on the spectrum and who loves nature more than anything. She is the only one in her town who can see that everything is connected and you can't just get rid of a 'pest' species because it's inconvenient or it will skew everything out of balance.

I could really relate to her frustration that no one else could see it, and that no one would listen to a child about 'serious adult issues.' Maybe because it begins with a quote by Greta Thunberg ("I have learned you are never too small to make a difference."), but I couldn't help but imagine Willodeen as a younger Greta Thunberg. I think the character is strongly modeled after her.

The animals are so imaginative and whimsical and so adorable. I really appreciated the creativity that went into dreaming them up.

The environmentalism really hits you over the head here (much like in the Silver Arrow by Lev Grossman) and it maybe could have been a little subtler, but it does get the message across very effectively. The story has a charm to it that makes it easy to forgive the heavy-handedness of the message.

I think my 9-year-old would really relate to Willowdeen and the message of the story (he is very concerned about climate change and the impacts humans have on the environment and very much into animals just now) so I plan to read it to him soon.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Wellbeck Flame for providing an early copy for review.

I sped through this delightful mid-grade book in an hour. It is a completely charming and enrapturing tale of a girl who learns to make friends and brings her village back into harmony with nature, with bonus adorable animal companions and some lovingly done pencil illustrations that capture the mood perfectly. Sounds cutesy, right? And it is, but it’s got depth to it, too. The main character, who reads as potentially neurodivergent, certainly does not have things go her way - whilst there are no huge villain figures, there’s misunderstanding, cruelty, and natural tragedies. But with friendship and courage, Willodeen will win through and uncover the truth…

- Ghibli vibes
- Animal companions, of the kind that make you go “awww” and also the kind that make you go “Yikes”
- Standing up for what you believe in

Willodeen, by Katherine Applegate, is a captivating story of a young girl who has a passionate love for creatures that are seen by many in the town of Perchance as nothing more than a nuisance. Willodeen is convinced that the beasts, the ‘screechers’, serve a vital role in nature and does all she can to prove it. The earth, in turn, appears to be acting in a less than desirable way, with unusual phenomena such as droughts and fire taking place.

Adding to the chaos is the recent disappearance of the annual hummingbears who come to Perchance every winter and make their home atop the blue willow trees. Willodeen is desperate to find out why this is occurring and take action in order to protect her beloved animals and save the earth.

Katherine Applegate paints an image of hope, friendship and bravery through the young Willodeen and her pal Connor. The narrative teaches us that we are all interconnected and each part of the environment needs to be cherished. Willodeen is a wonderfully written book, which will engage readers of all ages. It’s an inspiring tale which will linger long in the memory.

Willowdeen is a joy to read.
Willowdeen is an eleven-year-old girl living as an outcast from the local village after her parents and brother perished in a fire. She lives with two elderly ladies who don't mind but actively encourage her uniqueness.
The young girl is intrigued as to why the creatures - namely Screechers (who emit a repulsive stench when they are frightened) have all but disappeared and why the Hummingbears no longer make their nests in the trees near the river.
Willowdeen believes all creatures deserve a place on earth and it's her journey of self-discovery and friendship that makes this tale absorbing and joyous.

This new book is probably one of Katherine Applegate's most beautiful offerings. She takes us into an imaginary setting, beautifully illustrated in the book, where the most fantastic creatures dwell. The tiny hummingbears (a cross between polar bears and hummingbirds!) are well regarded by the villagers, because they draw visitors to the annual fair.

Outsiders come to view the annual nesting of these animals when the hummingbears return each year to build their homes in the special trees growing in the area.

The smelly screechers are treated rather less kindly by the locals, who set a bounty on these animals, simply because they are viewed as a nuisance. Over time, the screecher population diminishes, and this is viewed as good riddance to bad rubbish. But alarmingly, other changes in the natural world also include a reduction in the number of hummingbears.

The story describes how 11 year old Willodeen - who lives with two kind old ladies, Birdie and Mae, after being orphaned - learns to understand the workings of the natural world through her observation of plants, animal behaviour and the wider environment.

Willodeen mostly keeps to herself, as she is shown little kindness or respect by the villagers around her, with the exception of the two old ladies. People consider her an oddity and not particularly bright. But it is Willodeen who works out what is happening to the hummingbears and what has gone wrong in the village of Perchance.

Ultimately, the book carries a message that is critically important, especially for the coming generations. But it does so through the empathetic telling of a imaginative and charming story.

Actual rating 4.5/5 stars.

"The earth is old and we are not, and that is all you must remember . . ."

After eleven-year-old Willodeen was recovered from a fire she spent even more time than was usual for her alone. Although she never actually was alone as she had her pet hummingbear for company. Never at ease with other humans and always seeming to miss some social cues, Willodeen returned to the trees and spent her days playing beneath their boughs and finding new magical playmates amongst their leaves.

This was charming, delightful, and contained everything I adore about children's fiction. I immediately bonded with the central character and ardently wished this book had existed for me, when I too was an socially awkward pre-teen. I just know this would have been a firm favourite read of mine then and I still found much to love as an adult reader.

The magical inclusions were penned in a whimsical manner and despite the many hair-raising situations that this short read contained, it had a beautiful sedentary pacing to it, akin to the feeling that the natural beauty inside of it also conveyed.

I wish there was a 6* option for this book or 10! This is a beautiful story of one very strong willed little girls fight to save her beloved outcasts.
We meet some great characters within this story and are blessed with a few gorgeous illustrations along the way.
This is one of those books where you hope there is a next and a next again! The adventures of willodeen! What a gem this is. I will definatly be buying this for family and friends when it is released!
Many thanks to the Author, Welbeck Publishing and Netgalley for a DRC i exchange for my honest review

This was such a great book! Will definitely keep the kids entertained for sure. First time reading this author’s work and I like it. A good story for the little ones. Highly recommend.