Forest Friends

Dhruvkaran Nand
Honson Chan
Tina is a seven-year-old girl.
She lives in a happy village named Purple
Cherry.
It is next to a beautiful forest.
There is also a clear, sparkling stream.
Tina loves to play there with her forest
friends.

1
One afternoon, a fire blazes through the
forest.
Brave villagers battle the roaring flames for
hours.
Finally, they put it out.
The tired people go home as the day gets
dark.

2
They hardly get home when a huge storm
hits.
Strong gusts of wind smash down trees.
The wind blows birds out of their nests.
Heavy rain floods the stream.
“It’s this climate change trouble,” some old
people say.

3
The next day, Tina runs out to play with her
forest friends.
“Oh no! What has happened to the forest,”
she weeps.
Just then, she hears voices crying for help.
“Help! Help!”
Tina listens carefully.

4
She realizes the sound is coming from the
stream and rushes toward it.
Tina finds her friends there:
the fish, the frog, and the eel.
They are covered with leaves and twigs
dumped by the storm.

5
The frog pleads with Tina.
“Please help us, Tina. The storm destroyed
our homes last night.”
“Don’t worry, friends. I will go get help,” says
Tina. She hurries back to the village.

6
Tina finds Tui, the headman. She tells him
about everything she has seen and heard.
Together, they gather the villagers and go
back to the stream.

7
When everyone sees the damage, they
become sad.

8
The villagers wonder what to do.
Tina remembers when a storm blew down her
grandma’s house.
“We have to clean up first, then we can plant
new trees,” says Tina.
“Yes, we will help too since this is our home,”
say the animals.

9
“All right,” says Tui. “Let’s get into groups to
make our work easier.”
Tui puts the villagers in two teams.
He leads the Green team to clear the land for
planting.
Tina leads the Blue team to help the animals
clean the stream.

10
Terrific Tina brings the Blues together to
make plans.
They want to make Purple Cherry the most
livable place ever.
Her group does their best to stop the burning
and flooding.
“It is difficult, but we have lots of fun,” Tina
says.

11
I Wonder...
How do you think the fire started?
How did the villagers find out about the fire?
Were the villagers able to save any trees
before the storm came?
How can the villagers keep the forest and the
stream healthy?

12
 Brought to you by

Let’s Read is an initiative of The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia

program that fosters young readers in Asia and the Pacific.
booksforasia.org
To read more books like this and get further information about
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Original Story
Forest Friends. Author: Dhruvkaran Nand. Illustrator: Honson
Chan. Editor: Neehal Khatri. Contributor: Nemani Lui.

Published by The Asia Foundation - Let’s Read, © The Asia

Foundation - Let’s Read. Released under CC-BY-NC-4.0.

This work is a modified version of the original story. @ The Asia

Foundation, 2022. Some rights reserved. Released under
CC-BY-NC-4.0.

For full terms of use and attribution,

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Narrator: Denise Boland.