Review: Can You Believe It?: How to Spot Fake News and Find the Facts

Title: Can You Believe It?: How to Spot Fake News and Find the Facts
Author: Joyce Grant, Kathleen Marcotte (illustrator)
Genre: Children’s, Nonfiction
Publisher: Kids Can Press
Source: Publisher
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: June 7, 2022
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

For today’s tech-savvy kids, here’s the go-to resource for navigating what they read on the internet.

Should we believe everything we read online? Definitely not! And this book will tell you why. This fascinating book explores in depth how real journalism is made, what “fake news” is and, most importantly, how to spot the difference. It’s chock-full of practical advice, thought-provoking examples and tons of relevant information on subjects that range from bylines and credible sources to influencers and clickbait. It gives readers context they can use, such as how bias can creep into news reporting, why celebrity posts may not be truthful and why they should be suspicious of anything that makes them feel supersmart. Young people get most of their information online. This must-read guide helps them decide which information they can trust — and which they can’t.

Author and journalist Joyce Grant is an expert on how young people interact with and think about online media. Never judgmental, and often hilarious, she encourages readers to approach what they find online with skepticism and helps them hone their critical thinking skills to make good choices about what to believe and share. Engaging text is broken into manageable chunks, with loads of Kathleen Marcotte’s playful illustrations on every spread to help explain tricky concepts. Two fake articles are deconstructed step by step using the information found in the book, and an additional article allows readers to test their skills. This comprehensive book has strong curriculum connections in language arts and social studies. Endmatter features a glossary, an author’s note, sources and an index.

Review:

Can You Believe It? gives tips on how to spot fake news on the internet. There are tons of fake new articles posted on the internet every day. Some are clickbait, some are satire, but many are complete lies. It’s important to be able to spot them so that lies aren’t spread. This book is a helpful guide for kids (and adults) on how to identify fake news to stop it from spreading. 

I’ve been so excited about this book since I found out that my friend Joyce Grant was writing it! Now more than ever, it’s so important to be able to spot fake news articles. There are many lies on the internet and children have so much access to technology, the internet, and fake news. It’s important to teach children critical thinking so they can find reliable news sources. 

There were many practical examples of determining if an article is from a reliable source. Joyce referenced a fun Canadian ad for the “house hippo,” which was a tiny hippo that could live in your house, eating peanut butter crumbs and sleeping in shoes. That ad was meant to teach children that not everything that you see on TV is true. The commercial was actually brought back recently in an updated version featuring technology. It was a believable commercial, but obviously we don’t have tiny house hippos hiding in our houses. I loved seeing these kinds of real ads analyzed in this book using the tips on how to spot fake news. 

Can You Believe It? is a great resource for children!

Thank you Joyce Grant and Kids Can Press for sending me a copy of this book!

Have you read Can You Believe It? What did you think of it?