Two-fer Tuesday- 2 Book Reviews and a Book Challenge Update

Like most of you, I'm juggling what seems like a million and one things--house renovation (15 years overdue), craft room purge (ridiculously difficult), library life, my last child moving out, a visiting sister who views me as her personal tech support, a need to work out in direct opposition to what I want to do, and a new grandbaby coming into the world.
Like you, I'm squeezing in some books. Today's offering is double the fun:
The Impossible Fortress, Simon and Schuster, 2017.

I've been listening to this one on audio and it has been great. I'm incredibly fond of all things 80s, well maybe not my crazy poofy, permed hair or some of the ridiculous outfits we wore back then. But, it was the dawn of a new era for me. I was introduced to the world of computers. It was so amazing to be able to type a paper one time and save it instead of having to re-type drafts over and over again. If I go back to the very early 80s and late 70s, I can remember the Commodore 64. Oh man, I wanted one of those sooooooo badly. Perhaps that is why I am loving this book, The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak. The book features Billy (aka Will) Marvin, he's a 14-year-old boy who is part of a trio (Alf and Clark fill out the crew) enthralled with girls, boobs, and getting their hands on the copy of Playboy featuring the letter-turning goddess, Vanna White.
The boys scheme unsuccessfully and are stymied at every turn. Finally, Alf  turns to notorious town bad boy who has a plan. But, they need the security code to the stationer's store this brings us to Mary the stationer's daughter. She and Will share a love for games, coding, and computers. They work together and enter a game design contest.
I won't tell much more as you can discover this gem on your own. I really enjoyed this book-- the teen voice seemed very authentic to me. It took me right back to that awkward stage of questioning myself nearly every second of the day. The characters are multi-dimensional and interesting. There are some downright laugh-out-loud funny moments, some truly cringe-y moments that make you feel just like you did as an uncertain hormonal, pimply-faced teenager. It is a glorious coming of age mashup bringing new love, the 80s, and tech together. This is a worthy effort and I'm happy to have another book to hand to my techy kids and friends.

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart, Delacorte Press, 2017. 
I eagerly snapped up this ARC at Midwinter Conference in January. I looooove Lockhart's books; her last book, We Were Liars, kept me entertained with all its twists and surprises and ultimately wanting more.
Her latest features Jule, a girl on the run. From what/whom it isn't immediately clear. In fact, not much is clear. Jule is a very unreliable narrator. You never know whether she is telling the truth. But, isn't that what you love about the unreliable narrator?
The book opens with Jule in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in June 2017.
Lockhart unwinds the story bouncing around from place to place and various times. She successfully keeps her readers guessing.
Jule befriends the privileged Imogen (Immie) and slowly inserts herself into Immie's life.
It's got layers upon layers of lies with shades of The Talented Mr. Ripley. E. Lockhart has written another page turner with a narrator that I'm not sure I like. She's broken and bent on being her own superhero. I'm pretty sure I will have to re-read to gain clarity on this one. (Maybe I'll re-read after I finish the 2017 Reading Challenge.)
 
Update: How is your 2017 Reading Challenge going? Me? I've read 8 books since January! I know there are a lot of book-a-day folks out there, but I'm not one. I'm not counting picture books either, although I did pick up The Secret Pizza Party, (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2013) by Rubin and Salmieri-- the same guys who wrote and illustrated Dragons Love Tacos!  So cute!

So far, I've satisfied my Reading Challenge with these books:
#2 A book recommended to me:  A Man Called Ove, by Backman.
#4 Nonfiction title: Hillbilly Elegy, by Vance.
#6 A book published in 2017: Genuine Fraud, by Lockhart.
#12 A novel that deals with diversity: Hidden Figures, by Shetterly.
#18 An audiobook: Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn.
#20 A book I would recommend: Six of Crows, by Bardugo.
#25 A laugh-out-loud/funny book: The Impossible Fortress, by Rekulak.

So, 7 down and 18 to go before January 30, 2018. I'm in good shape.       

Two-fer Tuesday- A book for your old-school loving gamers and a fraud in plain sight

Like most of you, I'm juggling what seems like a million and one things--house renovation (15 years overdue), craft room purge (ridiculously difficult), library life, my last child moving out, a visiting sister who views me as her personal tech support, a need to work out in direct opposition to what I want to do, and a new grandbaby coming into the world.
Like you, I'm squeezing in some books. Today's offering is double the fun:
The Impossible Fortress, Simon and Schuster, 2017.

I've been listening to this one on audio and it has been great. I'm incredibly fond of all things 80s, well maybe not my crazy poofy, permed hair or some of the ridiculous outfits we wore back then. But, it was the dawn of a new era for me. I was introduced to the world of computers. It was so amazing to be able to type a paper one time and save it instead of having to re-type drafts over and over again. If I go back to the very early 80s and late 70s, I can remember the Commodore 64. Oh man, I wanted one of those sooooooo badly. Perhaps that is why I am loving this book, The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak. The book features Billy (aka Will) Marvin, he's a 14-year-old boy who is part of a trio (Alf and Clark fill out the crew) enthralled with girls, boobs, and getting their hands on the copy of Playboy featuring the letter-turning goddess, Vanna White.
The boys scheme unsuccessfully and are stymied at every turn. Finally, Alf  turns to notorious town bad boy who has a plan. But, they need the security code to the stationer's store this brings us to Mary the stationer's daughter. She and Will share a love for games, coding, and computers. They work together and enter a game design contest.
I won't tell much more as you can discover this gem on your own. I really enjoyed this book-- the teen voice seemed very authentic to me. It took me right back to that awkward stage of questioning myself nearly every second of the day. The characters are multi-dimensional and interesting. There are some downright laugh-out-loud funny moments, some truly cringe-y moments that make you feel just like you did as an uncertain hormonal, pimply-faced teenager. It is a glorious coming of age mashup bringing new love, the 80s, and tech together. This is a worthy effort and I'm happy to have another book to hand to my techy kids and friends.

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart, Delacorte Press, 2017. 
I eagerly snapped up this ARC at Midwinter Conference in January. I looooove Lockhart's books; her last book, We Were Liars, kept me entertained with all its twists and surprises and ultimately wanting more.
Her latest features Jule, a girl on the run. From what/whom it isn't immediately clear. In fact, not much is clear. Jule is a very unreliable narrator. You never know whether she is telling the truth. But, isn't that what you love about the unreliable narrator?
The book opens with Jule in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in June 2017.
Lockhart unwinds the story bouncing around from place to place and various times. She successfully keeps her readers guessing.
Jule befriends the privileged Imogen (Immie) and slowly inserts herself into Immie's life.
It's got layers upon layers of lies with shades of The Talented Mr. Ripley. 
E. Lockhart has written another page turner with a narrator that I'm not sure I like. She's broken and bent on being  

Fake News and a New Tool to Fight Misinformation

Today's topic-- 

(Before you even read further-- is the Statista infographic (above) real or fake?)

I am so excited about a new tool that I discovered over the past week! Like many of you, I have been incredibly concerned about Fake News and its pervasiveness in our tech lives. That led to me thinking about and how to teach skills that will help combat the problem. 
Upon my initial search, I found some good work being done by Melissa Zimdars, Associate Professor, at Merrimack College. Her article, 'False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and Satirical “News” Sources' (published with a Creative Commons license) is a great place to start. She breaks it all down into 4 categories:

• CATEGORY 1: Fake, false, or regularly misleading websites that are shared on Facebook and social media. Some of these websites may rely on “outrage” by using distorted headlines and de-contextualized or dubious information in order to generate likes, shares, and profits.

• CATEGORY 2: Websites that may circulate misleading and/or potentially unreliable information

• CATEGORY 3: Websites which sometimes use clickbait-y headlines and social media descriptions

• CATEGORY 4: Satire/comedy sites, which can offer important critical commentary on politics and society, but have the potential to be shared as actual/literal news

 Often, articles and online items will fall into multiple categories.

The big bonus of Professor Zimdars' work is her comprehensive list of Fake News websites. At today's viewing of the list, there were 921 sites listed! She categorized them according to the following labels: 

Website Labels for OpenSources.co:

Fake News (tag fake): Sources that entirely fabricate information, disseminate deceptive content, or grossly distort actual news reports.  

Satire (tag satire): Sources that use humor, irony, exaggeration, ridicule, and false information to comment on current events.  

Extreme Bias (tag bias): Sources that come from a particular point of view and may rely on propaganda, decontextualized information, and opinions distorted as facts.

Conspiracy Theory (tag conspiracy): Sources that are well-known promoters of kooky conspiracy theories.

Rumor Mill (tag rumor): Sources that traffic in rumors, gossip, innuendo, and unverified claims.

State News (tag state): Sources in repressive states operating under government sanction.

Junk Science (tag junksci): Sources that promote pseudoscience, metaphysics, naturalistic fallacies, and other scientifically dubious claims.

Hate News (tag hate): Sources that actively promote racism, misogyny, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination.

Clickbait (tag clickbait): Sources that provide generally credible content, but use exaggerated, misleading, or questionable headlines, social media descriptions, and/or images.  

Proceed With Caution (tag unreliable): Sources that may be reliable but whose contents require further verification.

*Political (tag political): Sources that provide generally verifiable information in support of certain points of view or political orientations.  

*Credible (tag reliable): Sources that circulate news and information in a manner consistent with traditional and ethical practices in journalism (Remember: even credible sources sometimes rely on clickbait-style headlines or occasionally make mistakes. No news organization is perfect, which is why a healthy news diet consists of multiple sources of information).

Unknown (tag unidentified): Sources that have not yet been analyzed (many of these were suggested by readers/users or are found on other lists and resources). Help us expand our resource by providing us information!

Note: Tags like political and credible are being used for two reasons: 1.) they were suggested by viewers of the document or OpenSources and circulate news 2.) the credibility of information and of organizations exists on a continuum, which this project aims to demonstrate. For now, mainstream news organizations are not included because they are well known to a vast majority of readers.

Great stuff, right?! 

On Twitter, the good people on NPR shared a story that really intrigued me and led me further down this path and to my new favorite tool. 

My excitement is off the charts! I'm starting up with the News Literacy Project's Checkology tool tomorrow with my library students. 

The program is free for the rest of this school year. I will revisit this tool in the coming week once I've had a little time to play with it. But, I thought I would share today so that more of us can help get our kids on track with news literacy and fact-checking. If they don't learn to separate fact from fiction this world will be in real trouble.