Two Truths and a Lie

May 22, 2017
Each chapter of this highly entertaining volume, first in a series, recounts three hard-to-believe stories that revolve around plants, animals, or humans. But only two of them are true, leaving it to readers to identify the invented one. In one example, the choices include a tree-dwelling octopus, a headless chicken, or tiny, cave-dwelling dragons. Spoiler alert: there’s no such thing as a tree octopus, though the authors’ description of it is persuasive (“In the early 2000s, the tree octopus was on the verge of extinction, but a strong grassroots campaign by dedicated Pacific Northwest communities helped reverse that”). Color infographics and photographs—some real, others fabricated—blur the truth further (one photo in the aforementioned chapter shows a bald eagle in flight, with an octopus in its talons). Readers can also have fun finding the false entries in 10-item lists of dinosaur names, diseases, body parts, and more. The authors’ casual tone should easily draw readers in, and activities at the end of each chapter underscore a key goal underneath all the fun: developing critical thinking skills. Ages 8–12. Authors’ agent: Erin Murphy, Erin Murphy Literary.

March 15, 2017
With -fake news- now such a prominent topic of conversation, a book that asks readers to separate bizarre but true stories about nature from fake ones is quite timely. This is the first of a series that presents Ripley's Believe It or Not-type true stories about the natural world alongside Barnum-esque fabrications and challenges readers to discern the real from the fake. Two out of every three stories are completely true, and one is an outright lie. Some false stories are based on fact, and others are complete imagination. All the stories are accompanied by color photos, maps, and illustrations. Some of the strange but true subjects include fungus-infected zombie ants, book scorpions, and a chicken named Mike that lived for several years after being beheaded. The fabrications include a walking moss that feeds off decomposing animals, the worm-size African threadsnake that lives in the ears of wild dogs and consumes earwax, and the Amazon -megaconda.- Unlike the bogus tree octopuses that supposedly inhabit trees in the Pacific Northwest, most of these invented phenomena are convincing and difficult to separate from the real. It is up to readers to sort out the fakes from the facts. Sound advice is given on how to seek and evaluate information online, and, for the impatient, the fakes are revealed in an appendix. An engaging, entertaining compendium that will inform and confound. (photos, maps, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)

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May 1, 2017

Gr 4-7-The authors have essentially created a kid's version of the popular NPR program Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me (in which adults compete to determine which news story is false); however, in this case, the emphasis is on science rather than current events. There are nine chapters in total, each devoted to quirky stories related to a different topic (e.g., plants, animals, humans). Each chapter contains three tales: two true and one false. Readers are instructed to use their research skills in order to differentiate between fact and fiction, and to that end a "Research Guide" is included, offering tips such as how to evaluate Internet sources for authority, accuracy, and reliability. An "Answer Guide" explains which of the three stories in each chapter is false and why, and an extensive bibliography cites sources. Kid-friendly text and colorful sidebars and images combine to create an overall attention-grabbing effect. VERDICT Providing a framework from which to develop the tools necessary to think critically about information, this title is a fun and potentially useful curricular tool for teachers and librarians, as well as an entertaining read for tween science fans.-Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's School, Brooklyn

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2017
Grades 4-7 *Starred Review* Considering the fresh attention being paid to teaching a skeptical approach to information evaluation, this series opener couldn't be better timed. Inspired by a parlor game, the authors mix two facts about an aspect of the natural world (plants, animals, and even humans) with one untruth, and invite readers to pick out the bogus entry from each trio. Which is fake: human head transplants, fecal transplantation, or pee-powered fuel cells? A dinosaur dubbed Bambiraptor, an 82-foot megaconda, or oceanic siphonophores ( living snot ) longer than blue whales? Well, readers will have to check the book to know for sure. Each entry includes specific (or at least plausible) scientific details, names of actual researchers, and, along with colorful graphic images, often even photographs (doctored or otherwise). Each group of three also features sidebar definitions, projects to try, or thorny scientific issues to ponder, and a secondary list of hard-to-credit facts, body parts, medical procedures, or other itemseach with an embedded ringer. Readers can check their guesses at the back, where generous source notes for all the nonspurious content offered leads to further study. A brief but savvy guide to responsible research methods adds further luster to this crowd-pleaser.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)