Can You Believe It?
If you are unfamiliar with Joyce Grant’s work, she is especially known for her incredible website Teaching Kids News. Established in 2010, Joyce Grant has been sharing child friendly information about the world’s headlines. Given the rise of fake news, it’s only natural that she would write a children’s book all about how to spot the fake stuff. Can You Believe it? How to Spot Fake News and Find the Facts is a non-fiction guide to thinking critically and weeding out the fake.
Although written for a middle grade audience, I learned so much about the little things to help sus out what is real and what is fake. Since we are spending so much more time online, especially using social media, it’s so important that we all learn to recognize when something is not telling us the full truth. Whether it’s biased or one sided or simply just clickbait, Joyce Grant takes readers through the critical thinking process in six different chapters. Each chapter focused on an element in the real news that helps readers identify the truth.
I really appreciate the emphasis on needing to dig deeper. So often things we find online are taken at their face value without researching the content. Joyce Grant ensures readers know what elements will immediately identify something as credible and what readers can look out for. When we find those elements that raise red flags, that prompts us to find out more, to make sure what we are reading can be verified and is written by an actual person.
Joyce Grant keeps the information short and sweet. Since it is non-fiction keeping the information concise ensures readers will read the book through to the end. It’s a fantastic resource for teachers, especially those teaching media literacy, to have child friendly information at their fingertips.
The illustrations by Kathleen Marcotte are fun and eye catching, filling the pages and holding the readers interest in the topic of news. She includes diverse illustrations ensuring all readers can feel included in the important message of the work.
