I can recall learning how to determine the legitimacy of a source in middle school, when we learned how to research a paper. We were taught some very rudimentary skills mostly relying on recognizable press names and a few "reliable" websites. With so many more sources for information now, these skills are far harder for kids (and adults) to learn. Grant does a solid job of educating the reader not just on how to check sources but also to recognize manipulation and bias in writing style. The writing is easy enough to understand without oversimplifying the concepts. While this book alone isn't enough to fight the tide of "fake news" and our inability to trust media sources, it's another tool to help.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* important book for kids and adults alike. lots of helpful information!

Fake news can be found everywhere and written by everyone, not only reporters like old times. They are usually astonishing and eye catching that piqued people's interest. But it is not good to make fake news, although some did it for money. From this book, I learned more about fake news, and how to make news in general. By reading the book, kids can start to exercise their writing skills, to make some news of their own, and maybe someday be a better news-bearer for the world.

This resource is so desperately needed! This middle-grades chapter book is a clear, straightforward guide to evaluating media content and thinking critically about messages we get. It explains how various forms of news and media get made and what should be our standards for journalistic integrity. In kid-friendly language, it helps students understand why media might be false or manipulated and who might benefit.

The book is formatted well to make it as readable as possible for students. Text is broken up into manageable chunks and lots of illustrations and infographics are used to appeal to different learning types. There is a very encouraging, powerful message that kids can learn to be discerning consumers of information and can work to clean up the current quagmire of misinformation. This would be a fantastic (and arguably essential!) addition to school and classroom libraries.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!

Can You Believe It? How to Spot Fake News and Find the Facts is a children's book written by Joyce Grant and illustrated by Kathleen Marcotte. It is currently scheduled for release on June 7 2022. This book explores in depth how real journalism is made, what “fake news” is and, most importantly, how to spot the difference. It has 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 super smart. This guide helps readers decide which information they can trust (and which they can't), encouraging readers to approach what they find online with skepticism and to hone their critical thinking skills. to make good choices about what to believe and share.

Can You Believe It? is a well written and organized book that would fit perfectly into a social studies or library curriculum at the elementary school level. This topic is something we covered when I worked in an elementary school library, in our unit about evaluating sources, and think it only becomes more important as the amount of time spent online continues to increase. I thought the text was simple to follow and understand, explained things well, and did not talk down to the readers. I thought that the text and fun illustrations came together well in a nice balance to keep engagement high. The text is broken down into reasonable chunks, and I found the breakdown of the news examples to be helpful and accessible. All of this combined with the valuable endmatter made this book a must have for school libraries, classrooms, and homeschool families.

In this day and age, it is primordial to discuss the internet with kids. This book is an excellent starting point to cover the difficult topic of choosing which sources are trustworthy. I would recommend it to anyone who has children / who works with children.

This book was not what I had hoped for. I am also wondering who the target audience is. There isn’t enough statistics to be used for research, there’s not enough examples for teachers, and there’s not enough intriguing narrative for kids/teens. The premise and ideas are all great, but it stays too general and trying to reach everyone, which doesn’t work for this topic.

What a pertinent topic for young ones! It had good content, but seemed a little childish for the older kids.

An important book for the times we are currently living in! It is easy to read, provides a lot of great vocabulary and examples, as well as interesting illustrations to keep the readers engaged. Highly recommend for those looking to dive deeper into the world of fake news - how and why its created as well as how to spot it. At the end, there is a list of trustworthy sources (websites and games) to further your knowledge. Can't wait to add it to our library shelves!

This book is about fake news and teaching media literacy. It tells readers about the process of real journalism, and the challenge of spotting fake news, all while teaching young people to decide what they trust as they begin or continue to interact with the online world around them. Despite being a picture book, I would actually recommend this book for older students or for teachers to read as a guided or read aloud text. There is a significant amount of text on each page which would be intimidating for young readers. That being said, the pictures and images are interesting and feature chat bubbles, web browsers and profiles as part of telling the story and giving information. I think this book would be great for teachers and families of children in the 8-14 age range. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this awesome book! As a grade 3 teacher, I look forward to purchasing a copy for my classroom library in the future!

While fake news is a very important topic to address with young readers, I wish this book did more to engage readers with the topic. Just telling readers what motivates people to write fake news and telling readers to look for multiple perspectives is not enough. Knowing that fake news articles can also include some true information is useful, but how do you spot the lies? What about examining an article, or learning how to spot websites that deal in fake news and are not reliable sources? I appreciate that the authors mentioned Sam Wineburg’s work. More information about it would be helpful. Also, the illustrations are unfinished in my galley. There are spaces for text, but no text on many of the pages. I downloaded the galley several times, but it was always the same. This is a much needed topic, and I hope to see more titles about critically reading news articles.

Thank you, Kids Can Press, for the advance reading copy.

The book is a good guide to identify fake news from possibly the real ones.

I expect such books to be presented in a way it's easy to read keeping the target audience in mind. I find the writing or the information provided in the book to be a bit tedious to read.

I find the illustrations rather dull. I really wanted to like this book and would have love to gush about such books providing good information to the young readers. My reasons for not loving the book as much as I wanted to are just surface level I feel but it matters to me and to the audience I would recommend such books too.

I appreciate the parts which would actually help the readers make out which news to focus on amidst all the overloaded fake ones.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to receive an arc in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own!


I have a 3rd and 1st grade homeschooler- this book was perfect for my 3rd grader and up. The concepts were a bit too difficult for my 1st to grasp just yet, but I still showed her some of the information. Really thought out and planned, short enough chapters to really communicate the importance of each- my son and I loved it. On top of discussing general internet safety with him- stranger danger, prohibited websites, I feel like In this day - false info is just as dangerous. Especially for naive, younger minds. Loved this book, will be purchasing for myself and for some other mamas!

Some of the text was not visible (page 4 - headlines).

A very timely book.

It breaks down what fake news is, how to spot it, why it spreads so fast, and why people may be motivated to create fake news before delving to to a crash course in journalism focused on how stories are built and the impact of bias/perspective. Social media, clickbaiting, advertising, satire are also discussed.

Readers are encouraged to read and watch a variety of news coverage to get multiple perspectives.

Tips to maintain skepticism are also highlighted.

There are also some resources shared at the end to teach more about using media responsibly.

Honestly I know this was written for kids, but this could be great for teens and adults to as it breaks down the basics in a simple, easy to understand way.