Real or Fake?: Far-Out Fibs, Fishy Facts, and Phony Photos to Test for the Truth

by Emily Krieger

Overview

Can you tell the truth from a tall tale? Spot a phony photo a mile away? Figure out a fib in five seconds flat? Put your amateur detective skills to work in this fun and wacky book. See if the truth triumphs as you encounter suspicious stories, fishy facts, lying lists, and more. You'll also learn about history's greatest hoaxes, secrets behind a good fake, internet urban legends, plus bonus information that will leave you second-guessing everything you've ever read. Complete with awesome photos and hilarious collage art, this is one book that you have to read to believe...or not!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781426324055
Publisher:	Disney Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/10/2016
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	680,033
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 6.30(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Emily Krieger is a writer, an editor, and a fact-checker specializing in science and children's nonfiction. She has fact-checked the capital of Kyrgyzstan and other countries for the National Geographic Bee; amassed amazing tidbits about bugs, birds, and brains for 5,000 Awesome Facts (About Everything!); interviewed scientists about Bigfoot and George Washington's dentures for the book Myths Busted! (named the Fifth to Sixth Grade Book of the Year in the Children's Choice Book Awards); and pondered alien and ancient life while editing Science News for Students.

Editorial Reviews

2016-05-04
A compendium of hoaxes, urban myths, true/false posers, unlikely exploits, strange pictures, and wacky inventions designed to give readers' "Baloney!" buzzers a real workout.In no particular order, between accounts of the arboreal octopus of the Pacific Northwest ("Fake!") and cluster-balloonist "Lawn Chair Larry" ("Real"), Krieger presents over four dozen credibility testers. She rates each main entry for veracity on a "fib-o-meter" and for changes of pace mixes in lists of bizarre headlines or inventions and strings of real or reworked photographs. Though she includes classics like Piltdown Man and the BBC's 1957 report on the spaghetti-tree harvest, most of these dillies are relatively recent. Each entry features one or more photos, plus an appropriately surreal patchwork collage that Cocotos assembles by placing snipped-out images of human teeth or other features onto animal faces or bodies. Some of the factual entries are the real surprises here: yes, Theodore Roosevelt really did go on to deliver a speech after he was shot, Buzz Aldrin was the first man to pee on the moon (no details on that are provided), and diapers for chickens are a thing. So, apparently, are sheep-nose bot flies ("Insect Lives in Sheep Snot") and pet-food tasters. So the author claims anyway, though she cites no sources or URLs, and at least some of her "facts" are, at best, moot.Open anywhere and be prepared to be amazed, amused, and, occasionally, revolted. (index) (Nonfiction. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews