Finn's Epic Fails

The cover of this book shows a cartoon Fail-ometer, listing ‘Mildly Embarrassing’, ‘Faintly Useless’ and ‘100% Epic Fail.’ Winning is ‘Super Rare’, so the reader has a good idea what this boy’s life is like. Finlay Hope has just started in Year 7 and finds school life as challenging as his home life. His older brother, Jonah, who is muscly, and very popular at school, bullies him, and, as they share a bedroom, with Jonah on the top bunk, this is very easy. His little sister, Maisie, is so obsessed with unicorns that she tries to turn him into one by sticking a toilet-roll horn on his forehead. Dad is trying to manage on his own, as he and ‘the Mothership’ are divorced, but struggles to provide edible food, and spends too much time in Lycra (not a pretty sight!) and going on bike rides. School staff are disappointed that Finlay is not like Jonah, and his uniform is many sizes too big, so that contributes to taunts and jeers from his classmates. Fortunately, he has friends: Laszlo, who is always in love, (but never for very long) and a girl who is so brainy that they call her Google.

When Jonah posts a picture of Maisie riding ‘Finlaycorn’ as a unicorn, and gives out Finlay’s phone number, the humiliating total reaches 489 new messages… Laszlo encourages him not to worry- it’s Friday, and they’ll have forgotten about it on Monday, and he devises a distraction in a hapless teacher’s class. Then they are asked to be runners delivering messages, and there is more teacher-baiting, focussed on supply teachers who don’t know the names of the students, and that is very funny:  e.g. ‘Will Chris P. Bacon please go back to his farm?’  Teachers don’t exactly come out well in this book…

Finlay is very happy when a smelly dog arrives in his life, and there is much discussion about whether or not to keep it, but eventually ‘Trouble’, once washed, becomes part of the family. Jonah’s attempt to use the dog to become a star in an advert goes horribly wrong, and finally Finlay has power over Jonah- but what should he do about it? Google has a clever solution, and Finlay’s life is, however temporarily, much improved.

The font is as if handwritten by a neat child, easy to follow, and matches the cartoon illustrations by Al Murphy, whose website asks: ‘Do you like things that have been drawn by an adult, but which look like they have been drawn by a child in an institute for children with psychological issues and a below average ability in visual communication? Then you’re in the right place’. Phil Earle is an award-winning and best-selling author and these are two experienced funny people, and their book is great fun to read!