The story of The War Of The Worlds radio broadcast has all that is required to make it
a big hit with the kids: spaceships from mars, aliens, life threatening peril, and of course
best of all, a whole bunch of adults acting like complete idiots. So kudos to Meghan McCarthy
for distilling the essential elements of the Orson Welles panic broadcast into such an accessible
little book for younger readers.
Running to 36 heavily illustrated pages, Aliens Are Coming opens with the fact that television
was virtually unknown in 1938. This alone should scare the heck out of the average 10 year old.
Using actual extracts from the original script, the book presents a vivid retelling of The War
Of The Worlds, complete with flaming meteorites, bug-eyed monsters and rampaging metal tripods.
These scenes are visually book-ended by the clever device of presenting the central War Of The
Worlds portion of the story in vibrant colours, but utilising plain black and white for the
expositional pages at the beginning and end of the book. These include scene setting views of
home life circa 1938, and a look into the CBS studio where Orson Welles orchestrated his
Mercury Theatre of the Air broadcasts.
The last few pages contain some detailed additional information that older readers will find
interesting, giving additional background on the reasons for the panic and the gestation of
the radio play. By necessity, the story is not told in great detail, but there are plenty of
other sources out there for that, my own book Waging the War of the Worlds included.
I do think however that the book would have benefited from just a little more detail on
Orson Welles and H G Wells. Neither is particularly well fleshed out. Some simple hundred-word
mini-biographies on each would have added enough vital information to put their contributions
into better context. Orson Welles in particular comes across as something of a mystery man, which is a shame.
McCarthy is an accomplished artist with a deft cartoon style that will greatly appeal to youngsters.
Her aliens are classic BEMs (Bug Eyes Monsters) and the illustrations are full of life and fun, with
the book itself presented in a neat aged style complete with faux rips and tears on the cover. As an
overall package, this stands as a superb junior introduction to one of the most amazing nights in the
history of broadcasting, and a very good springboard to further investigation. I certainly think this
is a book that should be on school library shelves and if you can buy a copy of the broadcast as well,
would make a great Halloween present to children with inquiring minds. Definitely one to be read under
the blankets with a torch.
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