Spooked!: How a Radio Broadcast and the War of the Worlds Sparked the 1938 Invasion of America
By Gail Jarrow
Calkins Creek, 2018. Informational.
On the night before Halloween, also known as Mischief Night, people are known to play pranks. In 1938, a group of radio performers were planning one of the greatest pranks of all time - they just didn't know it yet. Orson Welles, a famous radio performer and actor, had a standing gig to perform adaptations of classic novels with his acting troupe. In 1938 they planned a special Halloween radio performance (that they were sure would fail) an adaptation of H.G. Wells' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS - a story where martians attack Earth. They were unprepared for the response of radio listeners - people who heard the broadcast thought it was a real news story.
The topic of this book is so wild, so unbelievable, and so true that it is immediately engaging to kids. The almost too-good-to-be-true narrative is highlighted by fast paced text that approaches the now infamous broadcast from multiple directions before settling on a very satisfying climax. Source documents, original photographs, and direct quotations add veracity to an out of this world tale. This is a good informational read for budding conspiracy theorists and anyone interested in bizarre history.
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