The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods.

• Author: Ramares, Kellia

Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods by Julia Butterfly/Hill HarperSanFrancisco. 256 pages. $25.00.

This book works best as the autobiography of a directionless young woman who accepted a mission and saw it through despite harrowing hardships. A preacher's daughter, Hill was not a forest activist before she took up the fight to save Luna, an ancient-growth redwood in Northern California: For two years, she engaged in civil disobedience by tree-sitting Luna. Her discussion of forest preservation issues is humane, unaffected, yet somewhat superficial. She neither harangues nor sermonizes, but some people might find her frequent references to prayer and spirituality syrupy.

Hill's...