The Whopper
Rebecca Ashdown
Templar Publishing
What would you do if given a terrible sweater lovingly knitted by your Gran? Try your best to dispose of it one way or another, probably. And that is exactly what happens in this story when Percy receives a ghastly-looking jumper from his Grandma. “Just right for walking the dog in!”

she tells him and that is exactly what Percy does – though perhaps not quite in the way Grandma had intended however.

 

When it gets beyond the pale there is only one thing for it …

and when on his return, Percy’s mum wants to know where the rainbow wonder is, what does Percy do? Tells a whacking great lie and hot foots it up to his room: he’d hardly put his hands up to dumping it in the bin, now would he?  Suddenly in the bedroom, he notices an odd looking creature who, Percy learns, is his Whopper. Said Whopper is invisible to grown-ups (a good thing) but gets bigger as the lie increases in stature (definitely not a good thing). So, by the time Grandma leaves the Whopper is enormous.
Time to tell the truth, brother Boris suggests but Percy isn’t convinced, so at bedtime, Percy has a bed companion – a very hungry one …

But it’s not until the Whopper casts his hungry eyes on Boris the next day after school that Percy puts his hands up to the lie and then with the truth out, you can imagine what happens to that Whopper. Which just goes to show that it’s always best to be honest – though maybe not where Grandmas are concerned …
A delightfully playful take on a serious topic that faces all children from time to time. Most of us know how that seemingly simple little lie can grow out of all proportion to become all-consuming, if the perpetrator doesn’t own up. Rebecca Ashdown’s illustrations bring that truth home in a deliciously humorous manner with images that will surely make young children think twice before they lie to get themselves out of trouble.

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