The following review appeared in Teach Secondary magazine. It’s short because book reviews are limited to 150 words. You’ll find a longer review at Book Review: How Charts Lie.

We are presented with charts all the time. But are they telling us how things really are? You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to believe that charts may not always tell you the truth: take a look at the graphs your students are producing in Excel. All they need is some data and a built-in wizard, and they can produce a good-looking graph in seconds.

This book spends the first chapter explaining how to read a chart, and what to look for. In this era of fake news, this aspect of literacy is essential. It includes useful tricks, such as mentally covering the chart with a trend line, or dividing it into quadrants. Then it delves into five ways in which charts can lie, such as by using dubious data.

Relevant to a range of subjects, not just maths, this book is both insightful and readable.

How Charts Lie: Getting Smarter about Visual Information, W.W.Norton, £17.99