Tom Playfair; Or Making a Start is a book by a Roman Catholic priest, Fr. Francis J. Finn S.J., originally published in 1890, and written for youths ages 9-12. Translated into many languages, it is a constant favourite among children of all countries. Suffering from insomnia, Finn started writing using two of his sleepless hours every night on this story, which tells of the ordinary familiar incidents of Catholic residential school life. Finn hoped to give his readers his ideal of a genuine Catholic American boy