Students in Mrs. Rice’s English Class Read about Invaders from Mars

Out of all the different genres in reading, science fiction is one of the largest. Stories from this genre can contain anything from time travel and stories about the future to alien invaders.  Many of these stories were inspired by the writings of H. G. Wells. Mrs. Mary Rice’s eight-grade English class is reading War of the Worlds, which is a book about invaders from Mars by H.G. Wells. According to Mrs. Rice, the class will be reading and analyzing the many different facts and philosophies used by the author, along with studying its interesting and exciting narrative.
   
Along with reading the book, the class will be making their own “apocalyptic broadcasts” just like the reading of the book that was broadcast in 1938. After the somewhat realistic broadcast of the book aired, many people were frightened and thought that the books event were real. People contacted neighbors and friends, and widespread panic ensued.  Many English classes only study the radio broadcast when learning about War of the Worlds, but Mrs. Rice’s class is unique because they are studying not only the broadcast, but the actual book as well.
   
Many of Mrs. Rice’s students are excited to read War of the Worlds. Eric Harrison, a student in the class, said, “It’s really awesome because it’s not an everyday story; it’s very different and exciting.”  According to Zachary Droubay, another student in the class, the book is detailed and interesting.
   
“One of the most interesting things about science fiction in the late 1800’s is that authors predicted a lot of the technology that we have today. But they did this with literary theory and philosophy instead of science,” said Mrs. Rice. Obviously, we haven’t had any invaders from Mars or time machines, but writers like H.G. Wells predicted other things like people traveling into outer space. Hopefully, reading books by these authors will help students like the ones in Mrs. Rice’s class to think about the future.