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The Promise Bench: A village tale of small true work
Paperback
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ISBN13: 9798264583186
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Sep 9 2025
Pages: 156
Weight: 0.41
Height: 0.33 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Sep 9 2025
Pages: 156
Weight: 0.41
Height: 0.33 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
In a windswept 1600s English village, a carved heartwood bench records every promise made upon it-warming for kept vows and turning cold at boasting. Thirteen-year-old Elizabeth Blythe apprentices to her grandmother Mary, the bench's steward. When a showy festival of vows tempts Elizabeth into a too-big promise, the bench sinks to its sinking line and the village slides into a Dark Lean of thin catches and quieter laughter.
Guided by Mary (and helped by practical Tamsin, a bossy goose called Admiral Honk, and Button the jackdaw who steals circles), Elizabeth opens a Promise Clinic to trim grand speeches into tiny, keepable steps-amends made, witnessed, and done now. Three concrete keeps-a drainage ditch, mended nets, a fixed storehouse latch-lift the bench, rain finally falls, and Elizabeth learns how small, true work steadies a whole community. In the end, Mary passes her steward's knife to Elizabeth, who vows (in box-sized pieces) to tally truth and teach keepable promises.
A warm, funny middle-grade tale of accountability, friendship, and community care-perfect for Grades 5-8 and readers who like magic with rules.
A warm, funny middle-grade tale of accountability, friendship, and community care-perfect for Grades 5-8 and readers who like magic with rules.
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