Written by Kim Namoo / illustrated by Yun Bongsun

Children’s lies sometimes signal how they feel. If they are bored or lonely, they may lie and say that they have a stomachache. To get attention, they may lie and say they have things when they don’t. This book is about a bushy baby fox who lies a lot. For him, lying is just a means of getting along with people.
A Korean legend says that a fox receives a tail each time he lives for a hundred years, and when he becomes ten-hundred-years-old, the fox becomes a fox with nine tails. That means the fox is full of guile and an expert in deception. However, the baby fox in this book is a clumsy liar with only one tail. His parade of lies begins when his grandmother sends him to an elementary school for human children. Because he wants to make more friends, he brags about himself as if he were a great fox. He says he lives in a huge cave and has an abundance of treasures. He lies to his friend, whose father has passed away, and tells him that he will be able to see his father again. In fact, Bushy the baby fox is from a very poor family. His grandmother cannot afford to buy food for their next meal, so she has to sell off her last tail to raise her grandson. Bushy finally realizes true friendship by telling his friends the truth. His friends forgive and accept him as their friend because they understand that his lies were actually his own way of expressing friendship. This story may help children who find it difficult to stop lying. Through this humorous story, they will also realize the importance of telling the truth.