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CM . . .
. Volume XVIII Number 21. . . .February 3, 2012
excerpt:
Duped! is an illustrated nonfiction book describing eight deceptions – including forgery, identity fraud, cheating in a yacht-race, and a huge publicity stunt. The author, Andreas Schroeder, is an award-winning writer and an expert on hoaxes who has spoken on national radio about the topic. Apart from the main chapters, the book has also a list of contents, a brief introduction to scams and how they work, a list of books for further reading, a bibliography, an index and a page of author and illustrator information. The ratio of text to illustration is roughly 1:1, and much of the book alternates between full-page text and full-page illustration. The illustrations are in comic or graphic novel style, however, and almost always include some text which is important to the chapter. The pictures are mostly of people, rather than being maps or diagrams, and convey the strong human element of scams, the emotions and attitudes of the people involved in them.
Recommended. Saeyong Kim is studying for a Master of Arts in Children's Literature at the University of British Columbia, BC.
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The scams are well chosen and arranged so as to give the reader a sense of how many different ways to deceive others have been used in the past, in quite varied circumstances. The text is written in a clear, conversational tone which is easy to understand, but it does not talk down to the reader. Necessary background information, such as the definition of a forger, religious tensions in England at the end of the 18th century, who P. T. Barnum was, the process and purpose of counterfeiting banknotes, etc., are provided in little gray boxes separately from the main text, but the reader is expected to know such things as the basics of World War II, the definition and implications of a class system, what it means to file a patent, and the role of investors in a company. While the tales can be enjoyed without going into the details of any of the above, the almost casual reference to them in the text can spark questions in the curious reader.