About the Author
Jennifer Coccaro-Pons loves to write, design and spend time with her family. She has taught Kindergarten and university level courses in learning technologies. After completing her doctoral dissertation on web evaluation strategies concerning hoax websites, she decided that it was important to write a book that explains to children the different types of hoaxes that exist and the importance of fact-checking.
Meet the Characters!
C.C. lives in Hoaxsville with her family and friends. They all love to play hoaxes on people, but for different reasons. Each character from the story represents a reason why a hoax is created.
C.C. Hoax
C.C. is a copycat. She creates counterfeit things.
A counterfeit item is a copy of something that was made specially to fool people into believing that it is real. For example, counterfeit art would be a copy of an artwork.
Counterfeit items are usually sold for financial gain or simply to show off copying skills.
Satire and Parody (Twin Brothers)
They both create hoaxes to make people laugh.
Satire does not imitate or copy, he just simply makes people think about serious matters using exaggerated humor. An example of a website that uses satire is theonion.com
Parody imitates or copies real things, but in an exaggerated and funny way.
Ponder (Dad)
Ponder creates hoaxes to make people think.
An example of a hoax that make you think is the dhmo.org website.
Ima (Mom)
Ima creates hoaxes because it is fun to use her imagination
Examples include the Loch Ness Monster, and The Great Moon Hoax
Sometimes we wish these hoaxes were true.
Ossa (Sister)
Ossa creates hoaxes to become famous.
Ossa is the Greek goddess of rumor, report and gossip. She also represents fame and good reputation.
Example of this type of hoax is William Summerlin's Patchwork Mouse.
Fanewsy
Fanewsy represents Fake News. He works for FNC (Fake News Channel).
Fake News sometimes is created to try to sway people's opinion regarding political and social topics.
Uncle Hacker
A hacker is a person that breaks into a computer or other technological device to get private information and steal it.
Aunt Glurge and Cousin Sci-Fi
Glurge is when people send stories that are full of emotions and seem nice, cute, sad or inspiring, but hide darker meanings. The word glurge was created by a reader from the website www.snopes.com
Science fiction (Sci-Fi ) is a type of story that is not true, but uses science ideas to show how it could affect people.
Cousin Urban Legend
An urban legend is a story based on little or no evidence that is shared from person to person, like a rumor or gossip, as if it were true. The story is often scary or funny and sometimes teaches a lesson.
Malicious
Malicious comes from the word malice, which mean ill will or evil intent. These types of hoaxes are the worst kind since they are created with the intention of causing harm.
Verita
Verita means truth in Italian. Also Veritas is the Roman goddess of truth.
