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Using fiction to smash stereotypes 21/03/25
The Truth According to Arthur
Publisher: Bloomsbury
If you did something really wrong (like crashing your brother's bike - which you were told not to ride - into your mum's car), would you tell the truth? Or would you bend it, stretch or conceal it?
Arthur attempts to explain away the smashed bike. A supercool princess did it; an alien; the bike's a robot that fought mum's car. But then Arthur must face mum: he looks Truth in the eye, then surprises himself by admitting, 'It was me'. Mum's proud he was honest, Truth and Arthur become better friends, and he never rides his brother's bike again.
Illustrations buzzing with energy graphically illustrate Arthur's conscience-filled wrestle with Truth - ingeniously portrayed as a small grey creature - in this wry, immediately recognisable cautionary tale about fibbing.