Duped!

January 1, 2012

Gr 4-7-This hybrid of nonfiction and graphic novel is a fun lesson on how the masses can be made into fools. Schroeder offers basic information about a variety of hoaxes, such as one of P. T. Barnum's scams, a forgery of Shakespeare, the infamous War of the Worlds broadcast, and many more that are not so well known, but just as interesting. The book is set up like a short-story collection, with each hoax or swindler having a title, information on who is involved, the time period, and how the scam happened. Most of the information is told in paragraphs with black-and-white illustrations scattered throughout. The artwork has a lighthearted, fun feel with clean lines and distinguishable characters. Word bubbles accompany the drawings to lend a real graphic-novel look, and boxes of extra information are included. A good choice for nonfiction in the graphic-novel section or vice versa.-Mariela Siegert, Westfield Middle School, Bloomingdale, IL

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2011
Grades 4-7 With comics-style illustrations interspersed among eight accounts of the modern world's most cunning cons, it's hard to imagine a more kid-friendly piece of nonfiction. The scams covered include a made-up Stone Age society discovered in the Philippines that fooled even National Geographic, a Shakespeare forgery, Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio broadcast, a P. T. Barnumhyped elephant named Jumbo, a massive Nazi counterfeiting operation that flooded the world with flawless fake British currency, and a French rags-to-riches high-society swindle. Although the hook is baited with plenty of sensationalismenhanced by the nearly random switches from prose to comics panels and back againthere's some good history to be learned beneath all the grandiose flimflammery. Schroeder writes in a lighthearted, chatty tone, equally matched by Simard's good-times black-and-white cartooning. A list of additional resources points the way toward more reading for kids tickled by such large-scale trickery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)