Urban Legends

Stewart, Gail. Urban Legends. Part of The Mysterious & Unknown series. 2012. 96p. ISBN 978-1-60152-185-9. Available at 398.2 STE on the library shelves.

The growth of communication and social media has led to an explosion of false information. Some of it is done to confuse or obfuscate. Others are done for commercial or economic advantages. But some are fabricated to provide a moral or to explain specific circumstances. Known as urban legends, these arise with a kernel of truth and are just far out enough to be almost unbelievable yet provide enough convincing elements to make people believe they are true.

From the urban legend that dropping a penny from the top of the Empire State would kill a pedestrian on the sidewalk to the live cockroach growing in the tongue of someone who gave himself a papercut licking an envelope, urban legends are persistent, widely circulated, and often morph into other legends retaining the same lesson or moral. This book presents several urban legends and how they have evolved over time. These urban legends deal with stories that are too good to be true, stories that are meant to scare, stories about celebrities, stories about animals, and stories about food and drinks.

Readers who enjoy the paranormal or the thrill of the strange will appreciate the urban legends presented in this short book.