What the Fact? by Seema Yasmin

WHAT THE FACT? by Seema Yasmin is a work about Media Literacy whose main goal is to instruct regarding “Finding the Truth in All the Noise.”  That is a much-needed and admirable goal, but unfortunately, I feel that this title falls a bit short. My main concern is that the preview at least seems very dense and therefore not all that engaging for young people and students. It does have a few memorable illustrations (one refers to diversity in newsrooms and amongst readers) and could have benefited from more. Roughly ten percent of the text is devoted to helpful sources and notes. I am curious to see a print version, particularly since both Kirkus and Publishers Weekly gave WHAT THE FACT? a starred review. Other related titles that we have purchased include Renee Hobbs’ Media Literacy in Action and Megan Fromm’s Student Journalism & Media Literacy as well as several texts about critical thinking.