Arthur's Promise

Arthur's Promise is the first book in Arthur's Family Values, a series of Arthur book titles aimed specifically at teaching morals. The moral of the book is "Keeping a Promise." The book was written by Nancy Parent and illustrated by Kurt Heli.

Publisher's summary
Arthur makes a promise to D.W. that is almost impossible to keep!

Synopsis
Desperate to watch an episode of The Bionic Bunny Show, Arthur makes a promise to allow D.W. to attend the next meeting of the Bionic Bunny Fan Club if she foregoes watching her Mary Moo Cow special, Mary Moo Cow Meets the Rainbow Pony. On the day of Arthur's meeting, D.W. arrives in his room showing off a Bionic Bunny costume made for her by Grandma Thora and he is mortified. He tries everything he can think of to stop D.W. from attending the meeting, but D.W.'s presence may turn out to be the best thing that has ever happened to his club.

Plot summary
Arthur arrives home wanting to watch Bionic Bunny on television, only to find D.W. already watching it and excited about a Mary Moo Cow special that's about to come in which Mary Moo Cow meets Rainbow Pony. Arthur tries to take the remote control from her, but D.W. tells him that Mom told her she could watch her show. He offers her both a new coloring book and crayons if she'll let him watch his show, but D.W. isn't interested, so he asks just what it will take. She says that she wants to attend the next meeting of his Bionic Bunny Fan Club and Arthur, desperate, promises that she can.

On the day of the meeting D.W. arrives in Arthur's room carrying a Bionic Bunny costume she says was made by Grandma Thora. Arthur, shocked, feels he has to stop D.W. from coming before she completely embarrasses him in front of his friends. He asks Dad if he and Mom can take her to visit the zoo, but he says they're too busy. He even calls Grandma Thora and asks her to take D.W. to the park, but Thora already knows that D.W. is supposed to be attending his meeting. In a last attempt, he puts a Crazy Bus video playing on the television, puts all of D.W.'s favorite toys on the couch, and invites her to come in and watch, tiptoeing out of the room as she sings along with the video. Despite his attempt, Arthur arrives in the Tree House only to find D.W. already there waiting for him. Arthur's friends soon start arriving, Buster, Binky, Francine and Brain and all of them want to know just what D.W. is doing there. D.W. answers that she's there because she knows a lot about Bionic Bunny. When asked just what, she replies that she knows how much he loves double chocolate brownies, pulling out a large platter of them. She proceeds to also reveal sugar cookies and punch with rainbow sherbet, leading Buster to declare that it's going to be the best meeting ever.

That evening at dinner, D.W. talks excitedly about the meeting, saying that she even got to learn the secret Bionic Bunny handshake. Mr. Read suggests that he could even make his carrot layer cake with creamy mayonnaise frosting for their next meeting. At bedtime, D.W. visits Arthur's room, telling him that she should start attending all of their meetings, since everyone likes her so much. This is met with an eye-roll, but when she shows him a brownie she saved for him, he says that one or two more meetings might be okay.

Characters

 * Arthur
 * D.W.
 * Mary Moo Cow
 * Bionic Bunny
 * David Read
 * Jane Read
 * Grandma Thora
 * Buster
 * Francine
 * Binky
 * Brain
 * Baby Kate