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.
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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 One afternoon, a fire blazes through the
Foundation - Let’s Read. Released under CC-BY-NC-4.0.
forest.
This work is a modified version of the original story. @ The Asia Brave villagers battle the roaring flames for
Foundation, 2022. Some rights reserved. Released under hours.
CC-BY-NC-4.0.
Finally, they put it out.
The tired people go home as the day gets
For full terms of use and attribution, dark.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Narrator: Denise Boland.

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They hardly get home when a huge storm I Wonder...
hits. How do you think the fire started?
Strong gusts of wind smash down trees. How did the villagers find out about the fire?
The wind blows birds out of their nests. Were the villagers able to save any trees
Heavy rain floods the stream. before the storm came?
“It’s this climate change trouble,” some old How can the villagers keep the forest and the
people say. stream healthy?
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Terrific Tina brings the Blues together to The next day, Tina runs out to play with her
make plans. forest friends.
They want to make Purple Cherry the most “Oh no! What has happened to the forest,”
livable place ever. she weeps.
Her group does their best to stop the burning Just then, she hears voices crying for help.
and flooding. “Help! Help!”
“It is difficult, but we have lots of fun,” Tina Tina listens carefully.
says.

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She realizes the sound is coming from the “All right,” says Tui. “Let’s get into groups to
stream and rushes toward it. make our work easier.”
Tina finds her friends there: Tui puts the villagers in two teams.
the fish, the frog, and the eel. He leads the Green team to clear the land for
They are covered with leaves and twigs planting.
dumped by the storm. Tina leads the Blue team to help the animals
clean the stream.
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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.
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.

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Tina finds Tui, the headman. She tells him When everyone sees the damage, they
about everything she has seen and heard. become sad.
Together, they gather the villagers and go
back to the stream.
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