A quirky book that has some beautifully drawn pictures that illustrate the lies perfectly. Some of the lies I had previously been told but some of them were new to me. An easy read that made me laugh and think about some of the lies I'm now telling my grandchildren.

We all know that there are a few things that our parents told us--lies that were meant to stop our questioning or acting out. This book covers more of those than I ever remember hearing my parents tell me--a coconut tree can sometimes grow owlets? What?! Some of the lies that the book points out are a little scary, like a rabbit finally developing a hunger for flesh--but the majority are hilarious and take a lot of imagination from the parents that provided them.

Along with each lie---maybe we should call it an "explanation" and give our parents the benefit of the doubt, a bright illustration is provided.

Hilarity abounds with this book.

This book is quircky although I had never heard of the majority of the "lies". Some made you think on why they would be told to children but a few did bring back memories of my childhood and what I told my daughter.

It was a fun read, you have to read it with a bit or irony and humor. One or two of the lies my mom told me, and it was nice to see them included. I hoped for more of the "universal" lies tho, in order to relate to the book more. Most of these lies I can see babysitters telling the kids just to have them stop asking questions. Thinking of this while reading the book made me laugh.

A few of the lies were over the top, and I would like to see more "nice" lies in stead. But maybe this is the charm of the book?

I thought that this book was ok, I can honestly say that as a child I hadn't been told many of the 'lies' mentioned! 3 stars from me for this one, some of the illustrations were really good

I don't think I've ever been told any of these, though I did like the idea of space penguins. A fun little picture book.

Hilarious and charming. I was entrenched from the first picture to the last words.

I loved the idea behind this book, and the illustrations and layout are absolutely fantastic. However, only a handful of the 'lies' are things that I have ever heard, such as 'if you cross your eyes they'll stay that way' and 'if you pick your nose your finger will get stick'. The rest of the 'lies' seemed to get more and more obscure. This lead me to question who the target audience is for this book - if it's for adults it's not quite funny enough, and would be read in 10 mins and that's it. If it's for kids (which was my initial impression), some of the lies told are more likely to instil fear into children than allow them to see the funny side. Want to give your kid an aversion to sleep? Tell them the monsters will get them if their fingernails or on show. Or their vegetables will eat them if they don't eat them first. I can just see these ideas doing more harm than good. So for me, this book seems to fall into a grey area where there is no obvious target audience, as it's certainly not for kids, and doesn't do enough for adults. Perhaps it's meant to be a 'toilet' book, you know those books that some people have in their bathrooms for people to browse whilst they spend a penny?! Who knows. I really do love the premise of it, but maybe it just needs a bit of refining.

I absolutely loved the animations in this book they're really quirky and cute. This book genuinely made me LOL especially the sunwoofer page I have a two and three year old and although I wouldn't lie about something that would scare or hurt them I don't mind a little white lie now & again. I've never actually thought about it until reading this book but it really makes you think

A bizarre and unusual concept that should be laugh-out-loud funny, but was let down by some of the lies, which were bizarre to the point of being weird. About 80% had to have been made up (please note, I'm British and I make that comment from a Brit perspective); many of the obvious ones were missing (again, from a Brit perspective) and some were a little scary.
On the plus side, the layout was fun and the pictures were cute. A great book to give to new parents... on what to never say to a kid unless you want to scar them.

The illustrations in this book are outstanding! The color and whimsy really caught my eye and my funny bone. But having said that, the majority of the 'lies' didn't seem to fit the description given for the book. I expected the lies we tell our chikdren to be those that motivated kids to perform a task, discontinue a poor habit, keep them from fidgeting, etc.. In stead most were simply silly little lies, and some weren't silly, but scary. I probably wouldn't read this to my little one (even IF he's now eighteen).

This book wasn't my cup of tea, but I don't think a 33 year old mother is exactly the intended audience. Reminiscent of the "Grossology" series by Sylvia Branzei, this title seems aimed more at boys ages 7-10. The illustrations are quirky and humorous and the sayings are downright weird. Overall a funny book, perfect for the amusement of the right demographic.

Cute illustrations of "lies" told to kids. I haven't heard most of them, but it was still a cute little book.

It's a very cute and fun book. For parents to be or parents, it would be so sweet to read those lies. Some of them we have heard of, and some of them are not familiar, but it shows the "white lies" that parents created for their kids hoping that there will be a story in the kid's mind. It shapes something.

It would be a nice gift for people who are expecting kids or parents, grandparents that are already looking back in their lives.

The book is very cute a few days hints I have said Tommy children an few that I have heard others say, most I have not heard before. Illustrations were great and fit well with the text. I would recommend this book because it is cute but most of the lies parents tell Thier kids did not make any sense to me.

A sweet collection of lies accompanied by amusing illustrations.
Lincoln fighting the Civil War in VR or Communist Red Pandas?
Would making an amusing gift.

I loved these lies and the illustrations that accompany them, but I want to know who are the parents that concocted these lies. Some of them are scary and all of them are pretty far out there.

After reading this book I am pretty sure neither my parents have told me these lies, nor have I, or will I, ever tell my kids these. I don't think I even knew what a narwhale was until I was in my twenties

This book is the most hilarious, crepy picture book I have ever read. Hopefully parents will not read it to their children but it had every library employee laughing hysterically. Wonderful book for a good laugh in your day.

A cute book that might be a fun gift for new parents or parents of young children. Some of the drawings are pretty cute and funny. If the price is right this might be a good small gift.

I expected a book of funny things that are commonly took to kids and illustrations to match. I got a taste of that but the majority were more obscure things that I've never heard told to kids but may have been something the author heard a friend or a friend of a friend or even another kid tell to a child. Some are funny, many are strange, but it was worth the quick read-through for the few little laughs that I got.

This book is a collection of lies that adults tell their kids, with illustrations of the said lies. I have to admit that I haven't heard of any of these. Certain lies mentioned here were to discipline the children into good and healthy habits and that made sense. What I don't get in this book is the point of certain lies that are deceptive for no valid reason. To me, this was a strange book because I couldn't really wrap my head around the whole idea of lying to kids. However, I did enjoy the art and the cute presentation of the lies themselves.

Really good observations about things I would have never thought about twice!!!! Accurate and I am actually guilty of many of these, lol

The illustrations in this book are what makes it so great! They add to the humorous tone and explain some of the sayings. I would definitely recommend this book to some of the art classes to show students how drawings can convey meaning and humor while appealing to adults and children, no small feat. Many of the sayings I did not hear of or heard different versions, but I do believe that children around 9 - 13 will think this is hilarious. It is a quick read and can add a bright spot to your day.

This made me chuckle. There are so many of these 'lies' I was told as a child. A lighthearted read which shouldn't be taken seriously.

A fun little read, illustrating all those little lies we heard as kids, and the ones we tell our kids today. Seeing them illustrated, you realize just how silly they all are. I'd recommend this one for the whole family - a good laugh.

These lies are soooo tongue in cheek. Loved reading it. Recommended if you like reading morbid things.

Art is fantastic and descriptive titles are inventive. Based on description, I was expecting humorous stories or examples when the sayings were used. In any case, my favorite is, "FDR once said, "We have nothing to fear but bears by themselves.""

Thoroughly enjoyed this book and would highly recommend to others!

<i>Lies We Tell Our Kids</i> is a book with a lie written on one page and an illustration of it on the other. The art in this book was a very good selling point. Many of the pictures themselves were what made me laugh because they were just so ridiculous and did well in showing how ridiculous and stupid these lies sound to us now. I also really enjoyed the illustration style, which for some reason reminded of the movie Tangled, which I think is a testament to how realistically they were drawn. The problem was I had never heard of most lies, the exceptions being the ones about your body getting stuck in certain ways, so the laughs were more so for the ridiculous situations and the lies were just there as captions for me. It probably didn't help that I was reading these on an ereader, so I couldn't see the colour of any of the pictures, therefore the ones about colours, like turning teal if you swallow mouthwash, didn't really affect me in anyway. All in all, this is a fun book to flip through and cut stuff out of to paste on your walls, but I don't find it particularly relatable.

I feel like the book would have been better named LIES WE WISH OUR PARENTS THOUGHT OF WHEN WE WERE KIDS. Some of the standards are in there ("Thunder is angels bowling") with an up-to-date twist ("lightning is when they take selfies"), but there were also some hysterical ones I'd certainly never heard before. I asked my husband if he thought if he'd heard "Bubblegum you swallow would make you fart bubbles" he'd have swallowed any piece he could get his hands on. The answer was an automatic "Of course".

In line with books like GO THE F*CK TO SLEEP, this book is intended to amuse adults and it truly does just that. Thinking it needs to be added to the "Books for new parents" list we keep to give as gifts.

I'm not too sure what I think about this book. It has a good premise but I can't actually see parents telling their kids 90% of these things. The editing choices were great and I liked the pictures, it's just, as an adult, I don't really believe what is in the book is really told to kids and it doesn't seem to be a book for kids. However, I think this would be a brilliant book for trickster parents to read to get ideas to mess with their kids' heads. If your into that sort of thing.

While only two of the "lies" were ones that were actually told to me while growing up, the remaining "lies" were quite clever and a couple made me laugh out loud, like the one about screech owls stealing babies and selling them to storks. The illustrations are also very good and were perfect for the text.

This is for those parents with a very dark sense of humour. The lies in the book are mostly new to me, and I would consider them to be lies that I wish I could tell my kids. The illustrations are beautiful.

This is a darkly humorous book with really wonderful illustrations from Brett E. Wagner and Animal Media Group. The illustrations are beautiful. The 'lies' are not really commonly told lies so much as weird 'what ifs'. I wasn't familiar with most of them, though a few (if you pick your nose, your finger will get stuck, if you cross your eyes, they'll get stuck that way, etc) I had heard in my misspent youth. Many of them were straight up odd and seemed a bit like the author was trying to think of anything to pad out the book somewhat.

That being said, it's a short (105p.) book with gorgeous illustrations by a very talented author.

If you think of it in the same vein as Go the F**k to Sleep or Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book then it's quite a bit funnier. I enjoyed it.

PS If my mom told me dragons came from stinky shoes, I guarantee I'd never have changed my socks or shoes again, just on the off chance of getting my own dragon :)

This book is really funny and had me laughing out loud as I can remember my parents telling me quite a number of these things! Especially "Sticking you finger up your nose" and "Crossing your eyes". The illustrations are done very well too!

This short volume is the perfect gift for your former college roommate who is now a new parent. These delightfully warped lies are wonderfully illustrated. One of the few "traditional" lies in the book is "If you cross your eyes, they will stay that way". These lies may start silly, but sometimes go dark (think rats with two heads and dragons hatching from your shoes to the absurd (George Washington in space). Delightfully zany.

This book is one of those "Santa is not real" moment. It is so funny. I never expected it to be like this. It's a quick reads. I love the arts that accompanied each lies our parents told us. And how ridiculous it sounded now that we're an adult and the drawings made it much more ridiculous.

This review was written from an advance copy of the book in ebook format. My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an amusing if quick read. The pictures are of course the best bits the supposed lies are very odd in my experience but maybe i didn't have a very imaginative mother?
Something for the stocking I would say - a light fun book by a very good artist.

Possibly the most random book I have ever read, which of course made it incredibly funny. My personal favorite was the slot!
If you're looking for something fun, quirky and quick with some cool illustrations, then check this one out. It's definitely a great pick for a giggle.

Brett Wagner has created a book with incredible art work which tells a story in themselves and matches them with sayings our parents warned us with as we were children showing us how dark and wild some of the things we were told really were.

This is a nice book to flick through and laugh at the sayings while admiring the art work, some of which would make a great tattoo! I especially loved the saying about how you should eat your vegetables or they will eat you accompanied with the image of a killer carrot.

Quirky, yes, but not all are funny

Lies We Tell Our Kids by Brett Wagner is a collection of made-up stories that adults tell kids in the hope of scaring the little ones to do what we want them to do. A very short read that can be finished in one sitting. The book brings back childhood memories, of times when we were kids who believed everything adults told us, however fantastical these stories may be.

Only a few of those stories included in the book were familiar to me, and I think the book’s illustrations are more scary than funny, really.

This book is funny. It has a lie and then on the next page it has a picture of the lie. The pictures made me laugh so hard.

Some "nice" lies that parents tell their kids. Some I had heard of before but quite a lot that I hadn't but did have a chuckle to myself as I read them!

This was an interesting take on the lies that parents tell kids. I was once a kid, and I have a lot of siblings but a majority of these lies were really weird, somewhat scary and I had never heard at all. There were a handful that I recognized but most were very left-field for me.


Each lie comes with text and then a drawing of the lie. The drawings were awesome and very fun, but the lies were so strange. Who tells their kids that spiders eat people? Wouldn't that have the opposite effect of what you are trying to do?... maybe I just need a kid to understand a few of these. They might be satirical too and I just missed that - it is possible.

The illustrations gave this book an extra star for me, otherwise I was not too impressed.

This book was really just ok for me. Because of the awesome illustrations, I gave it a three-star rating. I'm a mom of two boys, and as I read the book, I found myself unfamiliar with most of the sayings. That was a huge letdown for me. I wanted to laugh at loud as I reminisced about tales my parents and grandparents told me, but I never connected with the book. Do we tell our kids fibs? Sure, we do!

I laughed so hard while reading this. Honestly, it's a really funny book with fun illustrations. I wouldn't necessarily read this to kids (why expose the lies) but it is perfect for adults, whether you have kids or not!

This book is a giggle from start to finish. There a numerous lies children have been told accompanied with hilarious illustrations. This book made me laugh out loud many times.

luckily for my brother and I, it does not appear our parents lied too much during our childhood. Haha! Half the stuff in this illustrated funny book are filled with little sayings that I had never heard. Such as, " beavers play hockey with a literal biscuit" or "bats are just birds dressed up for Halloween." On the other hand, I often heard that" thunder was just angels bowling. " Also, that if you" cross your eyes they will stay like that."
Somehow I do think certain children would find it funny.

Contains odd and end lies that "we" tell our kids. As I was going through this... realized I think these are lies Brett tells ~his~ kids. Loved the artwork that went alongside the lies.