The Message That Wasn't True

CONGRATULATIONS!!! You have WON a brand new games console! Claim your prize in the next 10 minutes or lose it FOREVER!

That is what fills the Mistry family tablet on a Saturday afternoon, above a huge, shiny, wobbling button that says CLAIM YOUR PRIZE. For one entire second, nobody moves.

The story

Maya Mistry is in Year 5 and keeps a notebook called THE BIG BOOK OF IS THAT TRUE. It is for claims: things people say as if they are definitely true. The tricky part, the part Maya lives for, is that true claims and untrue claims sound exactly the same out loud.

She is halfway through a sticker swap with her best friend Dev Okafor when the tablet goes ping. Dev has one space left in his Golden Boot Legends album and a jam jar of savings, and a free games console is exactly what he has been saving for.

Then Otto, the chatbot that lives in the corner of every tablet in Kettlebridge, tells them the message is genuine. Otto is absolutely sure. Otto sounds absolutely sure about everything.

The tell

Nan asks one question, over a bag of plums on the market: "What did I enter?"

You cannot win a raffle you never went in. A real message knows who you are. A trick knows too little. And the ten-minute countdown, when Maya actually watches it, is not counting down at all. It is painted on.

What runs through the series

Maya says "Check it before you trust it." Nan says a story that cannot be checked is not a fact, it is a pet, because people keep it because they like it. And when a case gets too big, the words "this one's too big for me" are detective words, not baby words.

What your child will be able to do

Name at least two tells of a scam message: urgency, an unknown sender, and a request to click, pay or give details. Say who they would tell, and tell them early.

Curriculum

Aligned to the National Curriculum for England, Computing at Key Stage 2 (use technology safely and responsibly; recognise acceptable and unacceptable behaviour; know ways to report concerns about content and contact) and to statutory Relationships Education, internet safety and harms. Content maps equally to the Curriculum for Wales Digital Competence Framework (Citizenship), Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence (Technologies TCH 1-03a and 2-03a, cyber resilience and internet safety, and Health and Wellbeing), and the Northern Ireland Curriculum (Using ICT e-safety, and PDMU). US grades 2 to 5, elementary, Australia and New Zealand Years 3 to 6. Not endorsed or accredited by any government body.

Reading it

A ten-chapter chapter book of about 7,800 words for confident readers aged 7 to 11, with Maya's Safety Spotter Tips at the back for the grown-ups to steal. Funny rather than frightening. Nobody loses any money and the dog is asleep for most of it.

Good for

Internet safety for kids at the age they get their own device. Online safety for kids taught as detective work rather than a list of don'ts. Cyber safety for kids who are far too clever to be lectured. Fake news, online scams and phishing explained through a story, with critical thinking for kids as the actual skill underneath.

A mystery for tweens that happens to be the most useful thing they read all term. Kids chapter books that a reluctant reader will finish.

The series

Book 1 of 6 in Safety Spotters, for ages 7 to 11. Younger readers start with Little Safety Spotters, ages 5 to 7, where Maya's little brother Ash learns the same habit. Older readers continue with Safety Spotters: Case Files, ages 11 to 14.

Free classroom resources, activity sheets and the grown-ups' guide at safetyspotters.com

Check it before you trust it.