To Sam Lyttle, the truth is like an elephant. It’s heavy, worrying and wrinkly. And when it’s sitting in your way, you can’t go under it or over it. But you CAN skirt round it…
In The Pudding Problem, Sam Lyttle is prone to stretching the truth. Most of his lies are harmless; tall tales and the product of an overactive imagination. So when Sam is summoned to explain a strange discovery—a ping-pong ball in a jar of peanut butter—and denies involvement, no one believes him. Then more seemingly unrelated peculiarities emerge, and Sam categorically denies any knowledge of those, too.
In between these mysterious accusations, and with evidence mounting against him, Sam ruminates on the different sorts of lies he has told using examples from his past. Meanwhile, two pounds of potatoes wind up in the washing machine.
Sam comes to a decision: he decides it is time to come clean about this latest tangled web. He gathers his family to hear the truth. The whole truth. Or is it? Could it be that this final “truth” is, in fact, another lie?
And in the follow-up title, The Stinky Truth, it's the school holidays and Sam and his best friend can't wait to see Cry Wolfe, the first movie starring their favourite crime-fighting hero. But Sam's mum has set him a challenge. He can only go and see the movie IF, and only if, he can make it through the entire holiday without telling a single fib.
<aside> 🤐 'A boy must untangle the web of lies he’s created in order to prove his innocence in this humorous and cheeky illustrated middle grade novel that’s perfect for “fans of Timmy Failure and Big Nate' - Kirkus Reviews
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Publisher: Simon & Schuster, January 2017-April 2018
Primary Agent: Caroline Walsh
Extent: 240 pages
Film/TV Rights: DHA (Clare Israel)
Co-agents: Chinese - Andrew Nurnberg Associates; Japanese - Tuttle Mori
Rights Sold: French - Editions Larousse; German - Mixtvision; Korean - Sowunamu; Portuguese - PRH; Norwegian - Fontini Forlag
The Pudding Problem Sample Chapter.pdf
Photo (c) 2016 by Henning Loehlein
Joe Berger is the author and illustrator of the Bridget Fidget books, has illustrated seven other picture books including the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang novels by Frank Cottrell Boyce, and has a long-running cartoon series in The Guardian, as well as TV animation projects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82wfqZ1ERt0
Behind the scenes with Joe Berger | Lyttle Lies
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/c6990aff-a45f-4459-af51-9941871c056f/Lyttle_Lies_poster.jpg.pdf
