- Picture Books
- Ages 5–9
- Nature
The Promise
A powerful, artful picture book about a bleak city transformed by one child's promise to plant seeds. Best for children ready for a more serious, hopeful story about poverty, nature, responsibility and change.
- Best for5–9
- FormatPicture
- Length48 pp
- Read aloud~10 min
The vibe
What it’s like.
Style
- Lyrical
- Literary
Tone
- Thought provoking
- Inspirational
- Bittersweet
- Warm
Themes
- Nature and environment
- Migration and displacement
- Home and roots
- Kindness to strangers
- Environmental activism
- Change and transition
Experience meters
What’s it about?
The story.
The Promise begins in a hard, grey city where the narrator has become as mean and hungry as the streets around her. When she tries to steal an old woman's bag, she is made to promise that she will plant what is inside: acorns. As the girl plants trees across the city, the world begins to change, and so does she. Nicola Davies gives the story the shape of a modern fable: spare, morally charged and full of environmental hope. Laura Carlin's illustrations make the shift from urban bleakness to growing colour feel emotionally powerful. This is not a light bedtime comedy, but it is deeply useful for older picture-book readers, classrooms and families who want books about social hardship, greening cities, responsibility and the possibility that one person's actions can begin wider transformation.
Fit check
Right for your child?
Where it lands by age
- 1
- 3
- 5
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- Best fit · 5–9
- Read aloud · 5–10
- Independent · 7–10
Prose load
Moderate
Visual support
Very high
Reluctant-reader friendly
Workable
Read-aloud quality
Excellent
Works well for
- Reading aloud
- Reading together
- Gift-buying
Preview before sharing if a child is sensitive to: poverty or hardship.
Bedtime suitability
3 / 5 · Workable
Sensitive-child
5 / 5 · Good fit
Graphic intensity
1 / 5 · None
Best for
- Environment
- Urban greening
- Social justice
- Hopeful fable
- Beautiful illustrations
Avoid if
- Wants light bedtime story
- Very sensitive to poverty
- Wants funny story
Particularly good for children who are…
- Interested in science
- Low self esteem
In the classroom
How it works in school.
A lyrical, hopeful picture book about a thief whose stolen acorns transform a grey city — a powerful companion for environment topics and talk about hope and change.
A book children love that happens to support school — never a stand-in for the texts a class is taught with. Reviewed for the classroom · June 2026.
Why it lands
Why they love it.
Why kids love it
The specific weight is the mugging — the girl as hungry and mean as her grey city, trying to steal an old woman's bag, the bag full of acorns and a promise extracted to plant them. The Nicola Davies / Laura Carlin modern fable on cities transformed by one person keeping their word.
- Making a difference
- Transformation
- Adventure and freedom
Why parents love it
The Davies / Carlin modern fable — spare and morally charged, environmental hope handled through the girl's own moral transformation, Carlin's grey-to-green illustration shift doing emotional work. Not a light bedtime comedy; deeply useful for older picture-book readers.
- Beautiful illustrations
- Conversation starter
- Educational for adult too
- Great writing
About the creators
About the creators.
If you liked this
Three ways out of this book.
If you liked this, try…
Lateral matches. Same shelf, different texture.
Come into this from…
Easier or preparing reads — perfect lead-ins.
Where to go next…
Escalation reads — a step up in scale, silliness, or stakes.
More like this…
Books that share themes and topics with this one.
Where you’ll find it
On these reading lists.
Buy or borrow
Pick up a copy.
- Bookshop.org ↗
- Waterstones ↗
- Amazon UK ↗
- Hive ↗
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