Robert Jergen: Man or Myth? An Exercise in Credibility

Who is Dr. Robert Jergen, author of the book The Little Monster, which is a memoir about living with ADHD as an adult?
I started reading this memoir in preparation for a series of booktalks. As I began reading this book, a few alarms went off.
He begins by saying that he was born in "Beach Grove, Illinois, a suburb 25 miles due west of Chicago." I have lived in the suburbs for most of my life, and I have never heard of Beach Grove, Illinois. I am, as some people know, a Google Maps fiend, so after reading this first sentence, I immediately went to Google Maps and typed in "Beach Grove, IL" Nothing. "That's odd," I thought. I tried scouring the map and zooming in, to what looked like 25 miles west of Chicago. I figured it would be somewhere near Geneva or Saint Charles. No Beach Grove. Then I googled Beach Grove. My search yielded no results.
I thought that if this place existed, it would at least have a web presence. Jergen stated that his town had 40,000 inhabitants, and this was in the '70s. That wasn't so long ago. Eventually, I found that Beach Grove Road does exist in Antioch, IL. Antioch, however, is nearly 60 miles northwest of Chicago, near the Wisconsin border.

Aside from geographic concerns, I was mostly interested in Dr. Jergen himself. His short author note at the end of the book merely states that he is a professor at a university in Wisconsin, and his contact email is a yahoo! email address.
Since we have been talking a lot about credibility and how students assess credibility, I decided to check out my source. I googled "Robert Jergen." The only results that came up were reviews of the book, The Little Monster. I also found an NPR feature on adults with ADHD featuring Dr. Jergen. I was surprised to see that they quoted him as being a professor of special education at the University of Wisconsin. Was this a typo on the people at NPR's fault?
I listened to the NPR story, which featured of Dr. Jergen, which I have provided here

I decided to look into finding out information on Dr. Jergen's academic career. I went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison's website and looked at the special education faculty web page. There was no information on Robert Jergen. I also searched the UW-Madison web page and could not find any references. I then googled the name again, and found a mention of Dr. Jergen and the University of Wisconsin-Osh Kosh. I looked at the Osh Kosh webpage, and also found no mentions of Dr. Jergen.

In the NPR interview, Jergen mentions that he writes 2 books a year. I looked on Amazon.com, which I consider one of the most comprehensive book sites on the web, and found only the book The Little Monster.

So, feeling utterly confused, I did another Google search. I search "robert jergen book" A website came up listing 2 books-The Little Monster and Mental Retardation Doesn't Mean Stupid: A Guide for Parents and Teachers. Delighted that I was finally getting somewhere, I clicked on the link for the book. Robert Jergen was listed as the author, and a link to purchase the book was available on Amazon.com. I clicked on this link, feeling even more confused, because I had searched for Dr. Jergen in Amazon earlier. When the book came up, the name Robert Evert Cimera was listed as the author. This was my "ah-ha!"moment. Feeling inspired, I googled Robert Evert Cimera. The first link that came up was a bio page for Robert Evert Cimera at the University of Wisconsin-Osh Kosh. And, to my surprise, I saw that Dr. Cimera received his PhD from the University of Illinois, which is of course my own dear alma mater.

So I have reached a conclusion: "Robert Jergen" is indeed a myth. It makes sense why he would want to use a pseudonym. His other writings are more academically focused and The Little Monster is a memoir of his life. But still, it seems like he went through a lot of trouble to hide his true idenity-making up the name of a town, making up a pseudonym, providing no contact information. Of course, I have no real proof that these two men are one and the same, but all evidence seems to point that way.

This whole exercise was an exercise in credibility judgments. If it takes me, a savvy information professional (wink wink), the better part of an hour to find out the true credentials of the author of a book, how long will it take the average high school student? Would the average student even care? Would they give up after finding no good results in Google? I wonder...

I wonder what the best way of teaching "persistence" in online searching is. I used nothing more than Google to do all of my searching, but it took a lot of tweaking and looking at links other than the first ones listed. I was interested in this topic, so of course, I didn't want to stop until I had answers. So now, I shall spend some time thinking of how I can apply my own credibility research to students.

As Simple as Snow

I just had to mention one of the books I read over winter break-As Simple as Snow by Gregory Galloway, a 2006 Alex Award winner. I first heard about it while attending Michael Cart's presentation on books for YAs. It intrigued me then, and I finally got around to reading it about 2 weeks ago.

This book, while featuring the familiar premise of a weirdo "goth" girl getting together with a slightly nerdy "regular" boy, is far from formulaic. It's rather hard to describe in a few words, but the basic idea behind the book is that the girl, named Anna, amuses herself by writing obituaries for all the members of a small sleepy town. When she finishes writing the last obituary, she mysteriously disappears. Along the way, Anna befriends a boy and leaves a lovely mess of confusing clues for him to figure out.

The book is accompanied by a website, http://www.assimpleassnow.com/, which really helps immerse the reader in the world the Galloway has created. This world is filled with interesting topics such as shortwave radio numbers stations, seances, Alistair Crowley, codes, Harry Houdini, and a complete listing of all of the songs featured in the story. A most unusual mix!

I have found very few books that can effectively maintain an atmosphere of mystery without compromising the integrity of the story. This review from People magazine sums it up pretty well: "[T]his strange tale manages to creep deeply under your skin, and to stay there for some time."

Another review compares it to Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides, and I think that it is an appropriate comparison. Both books provide a haunting atmosphere that leaves the reader wanting more.

I plan on using this book for my booktalks, perhaps accompanied by Looking for Alaska and The Virgin Suicides. I love books that make you want to know more, and this one definitely did the job!