Big Bright Feelings: Finn's Little Fibs

What’s it about?

The story.

Finn wants to fit in. At his new school, everyone seems so impressive, and the truth about Finn doesn't feel like enough. So he tells a small fib. Then another. Each fib snowballs into the next, growing larger and more elaborate, until Finn has no idea how to find his way back to honesty. Tom Percival uses his characteristic visual device, fibs given a physical, visible form, growing and multiplying across the pages, to make the internal experience of compulsive fibbing legible to young readers. The book doesn't treat lying as simply bad behaviour to be corrected but as something children do when they're afraid: afraid of not being enough, afraid of not belonging. The resolution asks Finn to come clean and finds that the truth is both frightening and, ultimately, a relief. A practically useful book for conversations about honesty that approach the topic from the child's perspective rather than the adult's, why lying feels necessary, and what it costs. Good for starting school, new social situations, and children who tend toward social anxiety.