Can You Believe It?: How to Spot Fake News and Find the Facts by Joyce Grant, Kathleen Marcotte
Published by Kids Can Press on June 7, 2022
ISBN: 1525303228
Pages: 56
Genres: Non-Fiction
Format: Chapter Book Nonfiction
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With a background of journalism and teaching media studies, Grant wants to build up young people’s media literacy. The illustrations on the book cover and end pages show newspapers prominently, but also laptops and smartphones. The look of the book is not a comic book, but it is more text on illustrations than illustrations complimenting text. The Open Sans font used for the book text is a very thin font; some eyes may find this very tiring. Note that p. 24 has a colloquial expression to describe how fans of a ball team could feel about a lost game, “From their point of view, it sucked.” As an introduction to writing for journalism, the book has much possibility. It does introduce the idea of fake news, but whether repeated cautions to be skeptical and check sources leads a reader to then wonder about the book itself is a question.

Recommended for grades 5-8

Reviewed by Betsey Noble, Dresden Elementary School