These Wild Woods

An illustrated book of affirmations for the hard and beautiful parts of growing up.

The beginning

A little world for big feelings.

Sam and Victor wrote These Wild Woods together as a heartwarming, whimsical journey of self-discovery and resilience.

The book uses affirmations, characters, and quiet moments of bravery to help young readers navigate their feelings, find strength in difficult places, and notice joy in the present.

Sam art directed the visual world, Victor illustrated it, and together they treated the book as the first doorway into a larger Friendly Universe publishing world.

The book world

A friendly guide through the woods.

01 / Feelings

Give hard moments a friendly shape.

The book helps young readers name difficult feelings without making those feelings feel too big to approach.

02 / Character

Build a guide kids can trust.

Whimsical characters and affirmations create a voice that is gentle, strange, brave, and easy for children to return to.

03 / World

Let the woods feel strange and safe.

The visual world turns courage, mindfulness, resilience, and joy into a place young readers can enter.

The work in practice

Pages, photos, posters, and small moments from the woods.

The work needed to feel useful for parents, teachers, and caregivers while still feeling like a strange little place kids would want to visit.

These Wild Woods book with a lavender backpack, compass, and flashlight in the woods — Book and field notes

Illustrated purple forest scene from These Wild Woods — The woods as emotional landscape

Sketchbook page of early These Wild Woods character studies — Early character sketches

These Wild Woods book displayed in a soft purple classroom scene — Classroom book world

These Wild Woods book leaning against a tree in the woods — Book in the woods

These Wild Woods book arranged with a compass and flashlight on a wooden bridge — Book and compass

These Wild Woods classroom poster with affirmations and an illustrated character — Poster and classroom resource

The creative center

Make the hard parts feel safe to enter.

What children carry

Big feelings

Fear, frustration, uncertainty, hard days, new worries, and questions that are not always easy to explain.

What the book gives

A friendly path

Affirmations, gentle humor, and illustrated companions that help courage, mindfulness, and joy feel possible.

The system

The first Friendly Universe book had to feel like a world.

From character design and forest palette to photography, poster materials, classroom resources, and the sales page, the book was built as the beginning of a publishing lane we can keep expanding.

01
Co-written by Sam and Victor
02
Illustrated by Victor
03
Art directed by Sam
04
Affirmation-based storytelling
05
Children’s emotional literacy
06
Friendly Universe Books

Buy the book

Step into These Wild Woods.

For young readers, parents, teachers, and caregivers who want a gentle way to talk about courage, mindfulness, joy, and the hard parts of growing up.

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