Real or Fake? Far-out Fibs, Fishy Facts and Phony Photos by National Geographic Kids is a fascinating book that helps kids to see through information and identify what is true from what is contrived, faked, tweaked or downright false. With the advent of the Photoshop era and the proliferation of exaggeration on-line, in print and in advertisements, truth competes with persuasive, authentic-sounding lies and fakes. Even adults can be fooled by these stories, “news” reports, photos, and zany factoids and find it difficult to discern the difference between what is real or fake.

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The book uses a fib-o-meter to help display the range of falseness that an item may contain. Some lies are broader and more serious than others. The bottom line is that it still represents an untruth. We all must be alert for the tricks that people use to fool, confuse and manipulate us. Sometimes the deceit is unintentional, sometimes it is for fun. Many times, however, the intention is to control and trick kids (or us) into doing something or believing something we would not otherwise do or believe if we knew the truth.

Adoption-attuned Lens One of the most demeaning questions posed to adoptees and their families centers of the concept of REAL. Do you know your REAL parents? Do you have any REAL brothers or sisters? In addition to your adopted children, do you have any REAL ones?  Yikes! These questions strike deep. They doubt the validity of our families, cast us as less than biological families and ask us to defend our “inferior” status. At some level, the REAL question causes kids to worry that perhaps they are right.

This book offers the perfect gateway to discussing what makes a family real. As adoptive families, we know that our families and our relationships are all real. The choice is not binary; both adoptive and biological parents and relatives are real. For a more detailed discussion, read this post on GIFT Family Services blog.