Spooked!: How a Radio Broadcast and The War of the Worlds Sparked the 1938 Invasion of America — a Review

Thought for the Day:

”Writers remember everything…especially the hurts. Strip a writer to the buff, point to the scars, and he’ll tell you the story of each small one. From the big ones you get novels. A little talent is a nice thing to have if you want to be a writer, but the only real requirement is the ability to remember the story of every scar. Art consists of the persistence of memory.”

~  Stephen King ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

I am always on the lookout for articles that will help me clean up my writing and make it stronger. Janice Hardy from Fiction University has another terrific post HERE that will help us all make our writing stronger.

Do you read poetry? Do you write it? I do. There are a lot of reasons to do it. HERE is a good post from Writing Forward with 10 Reasons Storytellers Should Dabble in Poetry.

It’s always fun when Merriam-Webster announces the the new words they have added for the year. This year? 840 new entries. Check the article HERE to see what’s new.

Last week, I offered a gently-read ARC of Dear Libby to one of you. This week’s winner is Danielle Hammelef. Congratulations, Danielle! I will get your book out to you soon. Alas, I have no giveaway this week, but I expect to have on next week. Please keep reading, though. I have a great book to talk about this week.

Whenever I see a new book by Gail Jarrow, I know I am in for a treat. This might well be my favorite of her books so far. The Seattle Book Review gave me the chance to grab Spooked!: How a Radio Broadcast and The War of the Worlds Sparked the 1938 Invasion of America and grab I did. Here is the review I wrote for them.

In 1938, the most popular entertainment for Americans was the radio. Families would crowd around the radio to listen to stories and music in the evenings. On Sunday evening, October 30 of that year, the Mercury Theater broadcast an adaptation of H.fdG. Wells’s War of the Worlds, modernized to the near future. Little did producers Orson Welles and John Houseman realize, people would be so fooled by the show’s imitation of breaking news reports interrupting what seemed to be a show of dance music that listeners would believe the country was under attack by monsters from Mars. Panicked callers begged police for protection and for telephone operators to connect them to loved ones to say goodbye.

Author Gail Jarrow has done a masterful job of telling this true story in a way that will grab young readers and not let them go until the very last page. The fascinating text is supported with great photographs and illustrations and powerful graphics that will make this computer generation want to read this book. Jarrow always finds such fascinating historical people and events to write about and bring alive for young audiences, but this might well be her best. Do not miss this book!

There will be no giveaway this week. I am giving the nice hardbound copy I received for review to the library at my granddaughter’s charter school. They have a tiny budget and really need books. Check back next week. I might have a giveaway then. If you are reading this in your email, please click HERE to get to my blog, then click on the title of the post, and leave a comment. And don’t forget to check for other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at the Greg Pattridge’s blog HERE.