Whoppers: History's Most Outrageous Lies and Liars

by Christine Seifert

Overview

History of full of liars. Not just little-white-telling liars, but big-honkin', whopper-telling liars - people who can convince us that even the most improbable, outrageous, nonsensical stories are true. And the worst part is that we believe them. Whoppers tells the story of history's greatest liars and the lies they told, providing a mix of narrative profiles of super-famous liars, lies, and/or hoaxes, as well as more obscure episodes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781936976980
Publisher:	Zest Books
Publication date:	09/01/2015
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	94,321
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Lexile:	930L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 12 Years

About the Author

Christine Seifert is a native North Dakotan, a professor at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah, and a Young Adult writer. She is the author of the YA novel The Predicteds, as well as the nonfiction books Whoppers: History's Most Outrageous Lies and Liars and The Endless Wait: Virginity in Young Adult Literature (2015). She writes for BitchMagazine and other publications, and has presented at academic conferences on such diverse topics as as Writing, Rhetoric, Twilight, and Jersey Shore.

Table of Contents

Preface 7

Section 1 Tall-Tale Tellers

CH. 1 Hard-to-Believe-Anyone-Believed Stories 10

CH. 2 Exotic Fabrications 22

CH. 3 Horseplay 35

CH. 4 Stinkin' Stories 42

Section 2 Great Pretenders

CH. 5 Fakers 56

CH. 6 Inheritance Seekers 82

CH. 7 Lady Pirates & Soldiers 92

CH. 8 Pen-Named Writers 101

Section 3 Cheaters & Thieves

CH. 9 Slick Salesmen 114

CH. 10 Religious Scammers 129

CH. 11 Cheaters Never Win (Except When They Do) 145

Section 4 Aliens, Ghosts, & Creature Hoaxes

CH. 12 Little Space People 162

CH. 13 Scary Creatures 175

CH. 14 Boo! Ghosts & Spirits 190

Conclusion 207

Further Reading 209

References 213

Editorial Reviews

“[A] lively, fun read designed to appeal to leisure audiences and history buffs alike.”—California Bookwatch
 

From the Publisher

Kids love outrageous stories. With that in mind, this book about "history's most outrageous lies and liars" will enthrall young readers. The book's 14 chapters are broken into four sections: "tall-tale tellers;" "great pretenders;" "cheaters and thieves;" and "aliens, ghosts, and creature hoaxes." For instance, the book describes how P.T. Barnum, founder of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, drew people into his exhibits with fraudulent displays such as a "mermaid skeleton" (actually an ape's head stitched onto the body of a fish) and Tom Thumb (billed as a "miniature man" but he was actually a child). It tells how Deborah Sampson pretended to be a man so that she could serve as a soldier in the American Revolution. It also describes how myths about the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot are perpetuated. It explains how Victor Lustig was able to sell the Eiffel Tower to a Parisian scrap metal dealer in 1925 for $70,000 (of course, Lustig did not own the tower in the first place). Young readers will be captivated by the stories of dozens of famous as well as little known cheats, liars, and tall-tale tellers. The writing is lively and engrossing, and boxes of related fun facts enhance many of the stories. Reviewer: John Micklos, Jr.; Ages 10 to 12.

Children's Literature - John Micklos Jr.