Are you familiar with the House Hippo commercial from the '90s? It was a Canadian PSA put out by the Concerned Children's Advertisers, featuring the small fictional hippo that scavenges around the house to eat crumbs. This PSA was one of the first things I ever remember challenging kids to think critically about what they were hearing on TV.
MAD FOR ADS: How Advertising Gets (and Stays) in Our Heads, is all about the purpose of advertising, the tricks companies use to get our attention, and the critical thinking we should be applying as we are bombarded constantly with messaging.
The book touches on some topics like digital footprints, privacy, and even kidfluencers (!) that make it incredibly relevant to kids growing up in our current world. It is targeted ages 10-12, which I think is a bit narrow (you can ignore age categories soooo often), but makes sense in terms of the amount of text, and the content being discussed as kids approach their teen years. Things like influencers being "hired to relate to you" and marketing using your desire to succeed or to feel normal are brought up, and there are a lot of pages that I think you could use directly in the classroom as you discuss the impacts of social media.
I like the way the illustrated charts and comics are incorporated to help visualize the data, and do wish that tool was used even more for the amount of information being discussed.
By Erica Fyvie, illustrated by Ian Turner, published by Kids Can Press. Thank you @readwithriver for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own
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