Willow lives on a little farm with her parents and her grandfather — “Papa.” Every day, Willow and Papa walk through the woods behind their house, and Papa teaches Willow about the trees, the plants and the animals of the forest. One day, a windstorm comes to the forest, blowing over many of its trees. While at first Willow is distraught, Papa helps her understand the way that forests regenerate, and how the death of trees can be a beautiful and hopeful new beginning. As Willow grows up, the forest grows and changes, becoming habitat for new species of trees, plants and animals. One day, Papa passes away, and the lessons Willow has learned from the forest helps her better understand and cope with his passing.

Willow and the Storm is a tender and beautiful story, meant to help children develop a better understanding of forest ecology as well as to improve their understanding of, and relationship to, the end of human life. It is filled with information and insight about natural history, ecology, wildlife and more, as well as wisdom about the dynamic nature of life. The story is accompanied by beautiful watercolor illustrations of trees, plants, animals, birds, mushrooms and more.

Ethan Tapper is a forester, and the bestselling author of How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World. He started writing Willow and the Storm after realizing that people often misunderstood the profound and often positive role that death and change plays in forests, and that this misunderstanding seemed linked to people’s dysfunctional relationship with human death. In writing this story, Ethan hoped to promote a better relationship to both forest ecology and the end of human life for future generations. Ethan reached out to his friend and collaborator, Frances Cannon, who brought the story to life with her amazing watercolor illustrations.

Frances Cannon is a writer, editor, educator, and artist. She has an MFA in creative writing from Iowa and a BA from the University of Vermont and is currently the Mellon Science and Nature Writing Fellow at Kenyon College and an editorial reader for the Kenyon Review. She is the author and illustrator of several books: Walter Benjamin Reimagined (MIT Press, 2019), The Highs and Lows of Shapeshift Ma and Big-Little Frank (Gold Wake Press, 2017), Tropicalia (Vagabond Press, 2016), Fling Diction (Green Writers Press, 2024), and Queer Flora, Fauna, Funga (forthcoming with Valiz Press in 2026). Her work has been published in The New York Times, Poetry Northwest, Poetry International, The North American Review, The Iowa Review, Vice, Lithub, Gastronomica, Electric Lit, Fourth Genre, Rhino Poetry, the Kenyon Review, and other venues. Learn more about Frances here!

Willow and the Storm will be published by Green Writer’s Press on April 11, 2025! Preorder it today from:

Phoenix Books (VT)

Bookshop.org

Amazon

Barnes and Noble