This adaptation of a folktale from Rajasthan, India, is especially relevant to today's environmental concerns. Amrita Devi has a deep respect for the trees that protect her desert village from the hot sun and the sandstorms. When the Maharajah's men come to cut down the trees to build a fortress, Amrita leads her people in nonviolent resistance as each of the villagers embraces a tree to impede the axemen's work. Enraged by the news, the Maharajah himself comes with a troop of soldiers to fight the tree-huggers but they are stopped by a terrible sandstorm during which they learn first-hand the importance of the trees. Detailed full-page watercolor paintings illustrate this legend which inspired the Chipko ("Hug the Tree") Movement in modern India. (Ages 4-8)

Based on a 300-year old Indian legend, the story relates how Amrita led desert villagers to protect their forest from the axes of tree-cutters by hugging the trees.