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 Post subject: History kids can relate to...
PostPosted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 7:24 pm 
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Martian War Lord

Joined: Wed Jan 12, 2005 7:01 pm
Posts: 1259
Location: UK
Title: "Aliens Are Coming! The True Account of the 1938 'War of the Worlds' Radio Broadcast" by Meghan McCarthy

Info: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, $16.95, 40 pages, ages 4-8

Grade: B

You might like it if: You like outer-space stories.

It seems strange, in this era of 24-hour cable TV news and space exploration, that people could be fooled as easily and inadvertently as they were in 1938 into believing that Martians were invading the U.S. But it really happened, and this intriguing account shows how it was possible.

First, though, today's kids have to be introduced to a world without TV, let alone DVDs and computers. People's home entertainment in 1938 was through radio, and with what would become World War II already starting in Europe it wasn't unusual for news bulletins to interrupt entertainment programs. So on the night before Halloween, when a radio play started with dance music that quickly switched to a pretend news bulletin, things rapidly got out of hand.

Panicked listeners, who'd missed the announcements that this was a play being performed over the radio, thought the actors' descriptions of a Martian landing and invasion in New Jersey were real. Callers jammed phone lines and cars crowded the roads as people fled. Police questioned the actors and director Orson Welles, who as the play went on hadn't realized the consternation they were creating.

Author-illustrator Meghan McCarthy wisely keeps her story simple and immediate, with just the play's announcer and reporter's voices describing the supposed Martian invasion. Her simple artwork and wide-eyed characters convey the era's relative naiveté. An author's note adds detail for older readers, including how one actor studied real radio broadcasts of the Hindenburg airship crash to convey the right note of alarm in his voice - and how such confusion happened not once, but several more times when the radio play was performed again.


FROM : http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/li ... 082441.php


Lee
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 11:13 pm 
Tripod King

Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2005 12:07 am
Posts: 262
Location: west-central Pennsylvanai
Wouldn't it have been better to post this on the "Radio Broadcast 1938" thread instead of here?


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 16, 2006 8:45 pm 
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Martian War Lord

Joined: Wed Jan 12, 2005 7:01 pm
Posts: 1259
Location: UK
Yes, on reflection that would make more sense, topic has been moved \:D/


Lee
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