About the Book, Author and Illustrator
This book by Tom Percival is cute story about telling the truth. When staying with his grandma Finn learns the importance of honesty.
Tom Percival’s Big Bright Feelings series (published by Bloomsbury) is the ideal starting point for discussions with young children about mental and emotional health, positive self-image, building self-confidence and managing feelings.
Tom Percival studied graphic design in South Wales. His illustration career has seen him design Halloween merchandise for a major supermarket, create the character ‘Hector’ for an Aardman-animated road safety campaign and produce cover art for a number of successful children’s fiction series, including ‘Skulduggery Pleasant’ by Derek Landy.
Book Review
we were able to openly talk and highlight what fibs are, normalise them, why we tell them, how they can make us feel, and how to learn from them
Freida loved the bright pink book cover! I particularly liked the introduction- a letter to the reader. By reading this to Freida we were able to have an open conversation about fibs and the consequence of how telling fibs can make you feel.
The illustrations were great, we liked how the fibs could be counted with the use of the circular coloured shapes. Freida found it funny to join in, shouting ‘POP’ whenever a new fib got told! It was good also to practice her counting!
Freida’s favourite page was the page where Finn confessed to all of his fibs and the fibs vanished. She liked the use of colour and enjoyed joining in saying ‘whssssssssh’ as each fib vanished.
She understood that by telling the truth it made Finn lighter and was happy to see Finn and his Grandma happy again.
The plot line was good. There was a page where Freida enjoyed describing the fibs from the scenes rather than having a script to read. I liked how this page allowed her to get involved and she was able to let her imagination do the story telling.
Overall, this book is a great read and we were able to openly talk and highlight what fibs are, normalise them, why we tell them, how they can make us feel, and how to learn from them.
I would certainly recommend the book to those of a similar age, 3-5 years. Even those older children would benefit.
If you would would like to buy a copy of the book we invite you to order it from your local independent book shop.
Or, you can shop on-line and support our Kids Reviews page by sourcing your discounted book via this link
Alternatively, we suggest that you visit your local library and request to borrow a copy from a friendly librarian.
Whichever you choose, we hope you enjoy being part of your unique reading community – happy reading everyone!
Reviewer Profile
- Name: Freida
- Age: 3 years
- Likes: Going to the park, her bike, dancing
- Dislikes: Soup and loud noises
- Favourite Book: A House in the Woods by Inga Moore
- Favourite Song: Let it Go from Frozen
- Favourite TV Show: Peter Rabbit, the movie
