But I Read it on the Internet! by Toni Buzzeo - ESSENTIAL

Buzzeo, Toni But I Read it on the Internet! Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa.  Upstart Books, 2013.  $18.  PICTURE BOOK.  

Carmen is sure that everything on the Internet is true; Hunter has never used the Internet and believes that only books will tell you what’s what.  Both of them have things to learn as their teacher Mr. Dickinson collaborates with the librarian to create a lesson to teach the kids how to find good information, no matter the source.  

I felt like I was watching my own lesson plan about Internet accuracy as I read this book.  Buzzeo uses a little library lingo (kids do not talk about URL’s), but the information is accurate, the illustrations are engaging and on the whole it works pretty well.  This would be a good introduction to internet research on the lower grades; I certainly hope no teacher or librarian would use this as their only tool to teach this subject.  I was a little miffed (in a good way) that I couldn’t read all of the facts the kids were looking up and that the results weren’t included either.  Librarians should take this lesson to heart and teach these skills every year in every grade.  

EL – ESSENTIAL.  Cindy, Library Teacher.