Killer Underwear Invasion! How to Spot Fake News, Disinformation & Conspiracy Theories

Killer Underwear Invasion! How to Spot Fake News, Disinformation & Conspiracy Theories provides a humorous and easy-to-read guide for young readers on fake news, from what it is to how to spot it.

Killer Underwear Invasion! walks readers through the world of fake news in six short chapters. Chapters 1 and 2 look at what fake news is and why people create fake news. Chapters 3 and 4 move on to why fake news is bad and what happens when fake news stories spread. Chapters 5 and 6 finish off the book by looking at why we believe fake news and how to tell real news from fake news.

Author-illustrator Elise Gravel takes a humorous approach to teaching young readers about fake news. The colourful characters and topics used for news stories illustrate the presented ideas well for readers. For example, the section on why you need to read the story, not just the headline, has the fake headline of “Woman killed by her underwear!” The story gives the details where the person slipped on a pair of underwear that had been dropped on the stairs and hit her head. Using killer underwear as the story to illustrate this section helps ensure that young readers will remember the ideas being presented.

Elise Gravel presents the information well for young readers. In addition to the humour and the colourful illustrations, all concepts are presented in a simple and straightforward fashion. There are steps to help determine whether news is real or fake, steps which include to check your source and to think about who stands to gain from a story. Has a story been written by a journalist for reliable news media, or has it been written by someone who wants you to buy a product?

Killer Underwear Invasion! contains a lot of excellent information, a small list of age-appropriate resources for readers who would like to learn more would be a valuable addition.

Elise Gravel has created a humorous book that will catch the interest of younger readers and teach them about fake news, why it is a problem, and how to spot it. The humour and colourful illustrations in Killer Underwear Invasion! will appeal to readers and help them learn about fake news.