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a middle-grade fantasy debut · book one of three

The forest is talking. He's the only one who can hear it.

Watcher of the River Forest by Debbie

Listen to a Chapter 2 readings · voiced by AI Pre-order the Hardcover first 3,000 copies signed

Ages 8–12 · Contemporary fantasy · 21 chapters and counting

I'm ten. Almost eleven. I've got a shard of magic stone in my mitten, a skunk who thinks I named her wrong, and an old guy with glowing eyes hunting me through the snow.

So. Normal Tuesday.

— Ryan, Watcher of the River Forest

two visions · one book

Pitched by two publishing houses.

Both editors read the manuscript. They disagreed — gloriously — about who this book is for.

Cedar & Quill Publishers

Adventure for the kid who reads with a flashlight.

"The forest is talking. He's the only one who can hear it."

Ryan is ten (almost eleven, which basically rounds up). He's the self-appointed Watcher of the River Forest behind his house — and the shard of blue-white stone humming in his pocket just turned every squirrel, jay, and skunk in the woods into a witness, a friend, or a warning.

The pitch

Ryan knows every track in the snow behind his house. He's been Watching the River Forest for years — feeding the Squad with Dad, writing down his Watcher Rules, keeping an eye on the bird calls and the bullies and the construction creeping in from the school side.

Then he kicks a marble at the wrong wooden staff. The orb cracks. A blue-white shard flies loose — and suddenly Ryan can hear everything. A proud blue jay called BB. A skunk named Princess who hates that name and saves his life anyway. Squirrels with opinions.

But cracking that orb broke something older than Ryan knows. And the wizard it belonged to wants his shard back.

The forest just got loud. And it just got dangerous.

Three books. One shard. One Watcher.

This is Book 1 of three. The ravens still circle Eamon from above, untouchable, remembering. JP is still on the wrong side of the river — for now. And the old law of the Stone — listen with kindness, protect without control — has a long way left to test a kid who only wanted to watch the forest.

Pre-order the Hardcoverfirst 3,000 copies signed Read Chapter One Freemeet Ryan and Nutty Join the Watcher's Notebookrules · sneak peeks · ravens

Hearthwood House

Books that earn their place on the shelf for a generation.

"The forest was already speaking. He finally heard it."

Ryan is ten — almost eleven, which he insists is basically eleven. He keeps Watcher Rules in a notebook, feeds a squad of squirrels with his dad, and walks the same snowy path between his house and his school every winter day. Then a shard of blue-white stone lands in his pocket, and the forest behind his house begins to answer back.

For grown-ups choosing for a kid

On the Ontario side of the Ottawa River, ten-year-old Ryan has appointed himself Watcher of the River Forest — keeping rules, learning tracks, knowing which squirrel belongs to which name. When he accidentally cracks the orb of an old wizard called Eamon, a shard of the legendary Stone of Voices comes home in his pocket, and the jays, skunks, and squirrels he has loved for years begin to speak back in words, feelings, and images.

But the Stone carries a moral law — listen with kindness, protect without control — and Eamon broke it long ago. With help from Miss W, the school librarian whose archive holds the legend, and Leo, a quiet classmate carrying bruises of his own, Ryan has to learn the difference between protecting the wild and ruling it.

A warm, watchful book about paying attention to what's right in front of you.

Discussion starters

  1. The legend says protecting by force makes a tyrant. Where in the story do you see Ryan being tempted to use the shard that way, and how does he resist?
  2. Leo and Ryan both lost something — a mother, a sense of safety in the woods. How does paying attention to animals help each of them carry it?
  3. Miss W keeps the Stone's legend in the school archive instead of treating it like a secret. Why do you think the book has her share it that way?

Comp titles

  • Pax — Sara Pennypacker · quiet animal-bond storytelling with literary weight
  • The Wild Robot — Peter Brown · wilderness as moral teacher
  • A Wolf Called Wander — Rosanne Parry · what wildness asks of us
  • The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — C.S. Lewis · a winter doorway, with rules that matter

Three books, one moral law

In Book One, Ryan learns there is a Stone, and that he is carrying a piece of it. The books to come will test him against each line of the legend in turn — listening, protecting, and finally learning what it costs to do both without control. A coming-of-age told one winter, one forest, one rule at a time.

Gift the Hardcoverwith a handwritten card Add to Classroom Librarydiscussion guide included free Reserve at Your Libraryrequest from your branch

two readings · two voices · roughly four minutes each

Hear it before you read it.

Voiced by AI — a preview of the full audiobook cast coming with the published edition. Press play.

I

Reading 1 · Chapter 1

The Watcher

Ryan introduces himself, the forest, and the silence that shouldn't be there.

idle
Now speaking —

II

Reading 2 · Chapter 8

The Orb Cracks

Ryan, a slingshot, a marble, and the moment everything changes.

idle
Now speaking —

who's hunting him

The Antagonists

Every antagonist will get a unique ElevenLabs voice in the full audiobook. Avatars are placeholders — image-generation prompts ready for whichever model you trust most.

primary · the old wizard

Eamon

The one who tried to protect the wild by controlling it — and broke the Stone of Voices in the process.

Tells
Glowing blue eyes with white centers. Robe with carved bone clasps. A twisted wooden staff topped with a wooden hand gripping a blue-white orb — now cracked.
State
Weakened. A shard is missing from his orb. Hunting Ryan to take it back.
Reach
Can compel some animals; the ravens stay above his range, remembering what he did.

Audiobook voice

Low, weathered, hoarse around the edges. Slow cadence. Sounds older than the forest. Default: Arnold via ElevenLabs — replace with your custom voice clone.

Avatar image prompt

A weathered old wizard in a long dark robe with carved bone clasps, half-lit by a cold blue glow. He grips a twisted wooden staff topped with a wooden hand cradling a cracked blue-white orb that hums with light. His eyes glow blue with sharp white centers. Standing in a moonlit pine forest. Snow on his shoulders. Painterly, middle-grade book cover style — atmospheric, not frightening, but unmistakably dangerous. Shallow depth of field, cinematic light.

ambiguous · the tracker

JP

Thirteen, from the Gatineau side. Ryan thought he was a fellow Watcher. He scouts for Eamon — and insists Eamon is "trying to help."

Tells
Bright yellow parka. Reads tracks like text. Calls Ryan "partner" when no one else does.
State
Allegiance unresolved. Could become an ally. Could be a betrayer. Could be both.
Last seen
Walking beside Eamon in the snow, waving him through.

Audiobook voice

A teenage boy still figuring out his own voice — confident in the woods, halting when asked who he answers to. Default: Antoni via ElevenLabs.

Avatar image prompt

A thirteen-year-old French-Canadian boy in a bright yellow snow parka, standing on the snow-covered bank of a frozen river. The Gatineau hills behind him. He's reading the snow at his feet, half-crouched, tracking. His face is half-shadowed by his hood — readable but unreadable. Warm afternoon winter light, low sun. Middle-grade book illustration style, painterly, no harsh outlines. Confident, knowing, not yet menacing.

school-side · the bullies

Mike & Mark — The Menace Twins

Leo's older twin brothers. Source of his bruise. Escalating.

Tells
Always together. Soccer ball in one hand. Half a smile they pass between them.
Threat
Hallway-level, schoolyard-level — the kind that makes a Watcher's pocket go cold.
Live thread
Whatever Ryan sees on Leo, Leo's already lived with longer.

Audiobook voice

Two voices — close enough to sound like one. Boisterous, performative cruelty masking the fact that one of them is paying attention. Default: Antoni (lead) + Sam (echo) via ElevenLabs.

Avatar image prompt

Two thirteen-year-old twin brothers in matching winter parkas standing side-by-side in a school hallway, soccer ball under one arm. Identical haircuts, mirror-image smirks. Their younger brother is half-visible at the edge of the frame, looking down. Fluorescent hallway light. Middle-grade book illustration — stylized, not photoreal. Reads as menacing but never graphic; their power is in the pair, not the size.

environmental · the slow one

The Machines

The construction creeping in from the school side. Every summer, closer. The forest has less time than Ryan does.

Tells
Loud yellow monsters chewing through the brush. Quiet in winter. Quieter where the forest used to be.
Threat
Slowest antagonist. The only one that wins by default if no one watches.
Live thread
Dad says they start clearing the next section in the spring.

Audiobook voice

No dialogue — this antagonist is rendered through sound design in the audiobook: distant diesel, snapping branches, the absence of bird calls where they used to be.

Avatar image prompt

A row of idle yellow excavators at the edge of a winter forest, snow on their treads, parked for the season. In the foreground, a fresh stand of bare birches stops abruptly at a churned line of mud and torn stumps. Late afternoon, low gray sky. Middle-grade book illustration — wide, quiet, ominous in its stillness. No people in frame.

looking ahead

The Audiobook Voice Cast

Every named character gets a unique ElevenLabs voice. The cast carries from Book 1 into Books 2 and 3, so listeners hear the same Nutty, the same Princess, the same Eamon — for the whole arc.

Implementation plan, in three passes:

  1. Pass 1 — Default voices. Each character is assigned a public ElevenLabs voice (see grid above). This is what's playing on this page today.
  2. Pass 2 — Voice clones. For named human characters with significant dialogue, we record short reference samples and use ElevenLabs voice cloning so the cast feels distinct and consistent across all three books.
  3. Pass 3 — Studio polish. A human narrator handles the connective tissue; AI handles character lines. Mixed in a single session per book so transitions are seamless.