Finn's Epic Fails

Published on 9 April 2026 at 08:30

Finn's Epic Fails

✍🏻🐕💩😳

by Phil Earle

★★★★★

At a glance

Things I loved:

✍🏼 Author: Phil Earle

🎨 Cover artist: Al Murphy

📅 Release Date: 29th January 2026

📚 Book type: Illustrated chapter (diary-style), 272 pages

🌟 Reader level: Growing

😂 Laugh-out-loud chaotic humour
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Relatable sibling madness
🦄 Ridiculous unicorn-inspired moments
💨 Toilet humour kids will love
📓 Diary-style (but not a diary!)
🎨 Simple, funny illustrations

Dive Deeper

My Thoughts...

I picked this up because I’ve loved all of Phil Earle’s historical fiction, so I was really intrigued to see him step into a completely different genre—and it absolutely paid off!

Finn is a boy who just can’t seem to get things right, and the story follows his series of chaotic, hilarious “fails” as he tries to navigate school, friendships, and family life. He has to put up with more than just being a tween boy - he has the MOST ANNOYING siblings on the planet who are determined to make his life a misery!

One thing I loved was the humour—it’s packed with laugh-out-loud moments, from horrendous wedgies to lots of wind and even unicorn-inspired chaos!

I also really enjoyed the sibling dynamics (very relatable as I have 6 siblings!), although thankfully none of mine are quite as bad as Maisie and Jonah! The diary-style format (sorry Finn… definitely not a diary) with simple illustrations adds to the fun.

🌟I’d highly recommend this to fans of Tom Gates and diary-style stories—perfect for KS2 readers, especially those who enjoy funny, confidence-boosting books.🌟

Blurb

Finn just wants to survive Year 7, but his life is destined to be a series of epic fails. It's only Tuesday and his scheming, unicorn-obsessed little sister has already stuck a horn to his head (with superglue) and his properly evil older brother has wedgied him 278 times. And don't even ask what happened at swimming, in front of the WHOLE CLASS. At least he has best friends Laszlo (a hopeless romantic) and Google (ask her anything) by his side as he attempts to turn failure into victory in his very own book that is definitely not a diary.