HAMILTON READS
Local author Joyce Grant, who is an expert in misinformation, algorithms, and journalism for young people, helps kids – and adults – broaden their sources of online information in Burst Your Bubble!: Outsmart the Algorithms and See What You’re Missing.
You don’t need us to tell you it was a long, cold winter. Chances are, you might have spent a little bit too much time indoors scrolling on your phone. I did, too! Devices might be a good place to go to watch cute cat videos or share memes with friends; however, according to local author Joyce Grant, they’re getting us stuck in information bubbles that we need to pop.
In her new children’s book, Burst Your Bubble!: Outsmart the Algorithms and See What You’re Missing, Grant helps young people – and adults – recognize their information bubbles and find ways to break out of them. Using real-world examples and interactive activities, she encourages readers of all ages to think more critically about what they see online.
Burst Your Bubble! begins by demystifying a word that’s even tough for adults to understand: “algorithms,” while also asking readers to think about how and where they get their news.
“It’s such a technologically complex thing to discuss, so it took me a while to unpack it — and then make it fun!” says Grant, a subject-matter expert in misinformation, algorithms, and journalism for young people. Her previous book, Can You Believe It? How to Spot Fake News and Find the Facts, earned her two Hamilton Literary Awards among other accolades. Grant has also been recognized with a Gold Press Freedom Teaching Award from Global Youth and News Media. She’s no stranger to making media literacy accessible to children. In 2010, she founded teachingkidsnews.com, producing kid-friendly news articles, appropriate for those in grades three to eight.
“My goal was always to do professionally created news the same way we would do it for adults,” she says. “But you have to give context, you have to break it down, you have to find a way that isn’t scary.”
In Burst Your Bubble!, Grant provides practical suggestions for how to burst your bubble and fill it with new, interesting things, while at the same time introducing readers to timely terms like “confirmation bias” and “misinformation.”
“There’s a lot of divisiveness. There’s a lot of anger and emotion and confusion,” says Grant. “I think it’s really important for us to see other people’s points of view. People can’t be empathetic to somebody else’s point of view because they haven’t been given all the information, and that’s because they’re in their comfortable bubble.”
Grant says she thinks a lot of adults will find it comforting that they can point young readers to a book that will help them improve critical thinking skills. She’s also certain adults will learn a thing or two while reading it, too.
“The word algorithm is more comfortable to young people than older adults. It’s just software. It’s what the people who design the algorithms do with it that makes it challenging,” says Grant.
Born in Scarborough, Grant has embraced Hamilton’s literary community since joining it a number of years ago.
“I left behind in Toronto a lot of my kidlit friends – the authors I would write with,” she says. “I started seeing the enormous depth of the literary community here,” adding that Hamilton’s artistic community is broader than she ever imagined.
“The more I find out about it, the more interesting and wonderful it is,” she says. “The people are very welcoming, and there’s so much happening. You walk into any bookstore, and there’s a sense of community, support, and encouragement. It’s hard to describe how happy I am to be part of the scene. You can do so much here!”
OTHER LOCAL READS
The Story of Ontario Architecture
By Shannon Kyles
“Architecture is the most accessible of all the visual arts,” writes Shannon Kyles in her new book, The Story of Ontario Architecture: What We Built and Why We Built It. “We are born in buildings, spend most of our waking lives in them, sleep in them, and eventually die in them.” For decades, Kyles – who taught the history of Ontario architecture at Mohawk College for 32 years and started the website ontarioarchitecture.com in 1999 – has been travelling around Ontario, photographing and researching buildings. At nearly 400 pages, The Story of Ontario Architecture is an impressive archive of colourful photographs and text that traces the materials and methods of Ontario’s built environment from Indigenous peoples through to the 21st century. These buildings and their stories are worth saving and preserving, writes Kyles, and there’s no doubt that this stunning book will turn any reader into an architecture advocate and enthusiast.
Evelyn
By Robert Antrim Calwell
For nearly a century, Hamiltonians have been captivated by Evelyn Dick, the infamous socialite convicted of murdering her husband after John Dick’s torso was found near Albion Falls. Though she was later acquitted, Evelyn’s tale persists, inspiring movies, songs, and a made-for-television movie. Most recently, she’s the subject of Evelyn, a haunting collection of poetry and prose by Robert Antrim Calwell. A true crime story told by the main characters involved in John’s murder, including Evelyn and her parents, the book begins and ends with pieces told through the imagined words of the children who found John Dick's body. The book’s chilling account of one of the city’s most notorious crimes casts a new light on a story that has haunted and intrigued Hamiltonians for generations.
