The Promise Bench: A village tale of small true work

By Novak Sheriff

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FQJBD9LH
• ISBN13: 9798264583186
• Release Date: September 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 156 Pages
• Weight: 0.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"