Booktalks Quick and Simple

	Jarrow, Gail. SPOOKED: HOW A RADIO BROADCAST AND THE WAR OF THE WORLDS SPARKED THE 1938 INVASION OF AMERICA Honesdale, Pennsylvania : Calkins Creek, 2018 IL 5-8 ISBN: 978-1629797762 (3 booktalks)
Click on the book to read Amazon reviews	Booktalk #1 In this conflicted era of fake news and alternative facts, what could be more timely than an account of Orson Welles’s famous Halloween-Eve radio broadcast that convinced much of America that the Martians were invading? Filled with period photos, art reproductions, newspaper headlines, and quotations. (Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award 2019 - 2020) Booktalk #2 Back in 1938, there were no televisions in the home. Many people had a radio that they would listen to in the evening. There were many shows on the radio and people enjoyed listening to comedies and dramas as well as music. On October 30, 1938, the Mercury Theater Show was putting on a live radio show War of the Worlds. Based on a story by H.G. Wells, the story follows a fictional landing of aliens from Mars who rampage across the country. Adapting the story for a radio audience posed some challenges. They only had 60 minutes to tell the story and had to find a way to hook the audience. It was decided to stage the story as a series of news bulletins that had the feel of a story happening in real time. Never did they think that some people would actually believe that it was really happening. Booktalk #3 Did you know that in 1938 Martians invaded New Jersey? At least that is what a nationally broadcast radio show had people believing to the point of some people calling in eyewitness accounts of aliens to the police and families fleeing New York City. Learn about the production of the radio show on Halloween eve, where the acting company brought one of the first science fiction stories to life, The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. The performance convinced listeners across the country that the United States was being attacked by deadly monsters from Mars. Read about one of the first large scale fake news incidents which created a national uproar and the repercussions that happened, including the arrest of the lead actor and his eventual rise to stardom. Listen to a recording of the actual radio broadcast to see if you are convinced that we aren’t alone. (Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award 2021-2022)
	SUBJECTS: War of the worlds (Radio program). Hoaxes in mass media. Radio broadcasting. Radio broadcasting -- United States -- History

Jarrow, Gail.
SPOOKED: HOW A RADIO BROADCAST AND THE WAR OF THE WORLDS SPARKED THE 1938 INVASION OF AMERICA
Honesdale, Pennsylvania : Calkins Creek, 2018
IL 5-8
ISBN: 978-1629797762

(3 booktalks)

Click on the book to read Amazon reviews

Booktalk #1

In this conflicted era of fake news and alternative facts, what could be more timely than an account of Orson Welles’s famous Halloween-Eve radio broadcast that convinced much of America that the Martians were invading? Filled with period photos, art reproductions, newspaper headlines, and quotations. (Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award 2019 - 2020)

Booktalk #2

Back in 1938, there were no televisions in the home. Many people had a radio that they would listen to in the evening. There were many shows on the radio and people enjoyed listening to comedies and dramas as well as music. On October 30, 1938, the Mercury Theater Show was putting on a live radio show War of the Worlds. Based on a story by H.G. Wells, the story follows a fictional landing of aliens from Mars who rampage across the country. Adapting the story for a radio audience posed some challenges. They only had 60 minutes to tell the story and had to find a way to hook the audience. It was decided to stage the story as a series of news bulletins that had the feel of a story happening in real time. Never did they think that some people would actually believe that it was really happening.

Booktalk #3

Did you know that in 1938 Martians invaded New Jersey? At least that is what a nationally broadcast radio show had people believing to the point of some people calling in eyewitness accounts of aliens to the police and families fleeing New York City. Learn about the production of the radio show on Halloween eve, where the acting company brought one of the first science fiction stories to life, The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. The performance convinced listeners across the country that the United States was being attacked by deadly monsters from Mars. Read about one of the first large scale fake news incidents which created a national uproar and the repercussions that happened, including the arrest of the lead actor and his eventual rise to stardom. Listen to a recording of the actual radio broadcast to see if you are convinced that we aren’t alone. (Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award 2021-2022)

SUBJECTS:   War of the worlds (Radio program).
                        Hoaxes in mass media.
                        Radio broadcasting.
                        Radio broadcasting -- United States -- History