From Edgar Allan Poe’s bogus newspaper report of a balloon flight across the Atlantic to the heartrending blog of a fictional dying teen, “Kaycee Nicole Swenson,” Pascoe reports on over a dozen sensation-creating hoaxes perpetrated over the past two centuries. Writing in a “can you believe this?” tone of the Cardiff Giant and Piltdown Man, of Bigfoot and crop circles, of John Worrell Keely’s “ether” driven motor and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fairies, she concludes that people will continue to believe, even after the hoax is exposed, if the story is good enough. Keller’s loopy cartoons add comic inflections, but photographic illustrations would have underscored the reality of these historical episodes. Still, naïve young readers will find both entertainment and food for thought here. (generous, partly annotated, resource list) (Nonfiction. 9-11)
