Third World War with Martians in childrens factual book!, page

In the Third World War (due to start in the year 2023 when Martians invade)

This is quoted from the book The Woeful Second World War by Terry Deary published by Scholastic and part of the Horrible Histories franchise. The ISBN number is 0-439-01122-1.

My first knowledge of this text was when my son (7) came crying into my bedroom telling me about world war three and when it is going to start. He was extreamly upset by this and asked me if he was going to have to fight and told me didn't want to be separated from his family. I explained that it was not true and as we don't know what the future holds, it is purely make believe.

I am suprised and concerned to read this in what is a factual book and not a comic book about an imagined world or future. This series is aimed at young children/teenagers to teach them facts. Although presented in a fun way, it should not stray into the relms of fantasy and remain consistant with the rest of the book in being factual.

For those of you who don't know, the Horrible Histories franchise is aimed at children and comprises books, magazines, theatre shows, sticker activity books, tv series and audio cds. These focus on various world events and periods in history (eg Groovy Greeks, Dark Knights and Dingy Castles)

There are several other series as wel; horrible science (eg Deadly Diseases) and horrible geography (Violent Volcanoes). Scholastic Corporation has teaching publications in most schools inn the UK used by teachers to teach foundation literacy (Magic Key) and various subjects in later years. Scholastic Media produces childrens tv series such as Clifford and films such as the 2007 film The Golden Compass based on the Philip Pullmans books.

What do people think about this, especially with so much focus and speculation today on end of world, world war 3 and ufo/aliens/disclosure theories? Why are we seeing more and more of this and why is it being aimed at children?

And for the numerologists amongst you this quote can be found on page 66 and starts on line 6.

More Reading:
Horrible Histories Wiki
Scholastic Wiki
Scholastic Corporate Page

reply to post by afraidofthedark

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I think it was simply meant as a lighthearted joke......Seems fairly obvious doesn't it?

reply to post by filosophia

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Heaven forbid a kid uses his imagination!

reply to post by afraidofthedark

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Wikipedia has some interesting information about the author. It claims he is a fiction and non-fiction writer. Here's what it says about his approach:

"Horrible Histories are designed to engage and enthuse the reader about a subject while appearing subversive, primarily aiming to entertain with a background educative purpose. Deary views himself as kid who wants to share facts with other kids, and as a writer who wishes to "entertain first and inform second". He does not respect authors who follow either extreme, that is, those who either only inform or only entertain. He believes that "readers are more important than writers and their needs have to come first" and that if the writer engages the reader, they will retain more knowledge from the work. The series has a sceptical view on the accuracy and validity of history. An introduction to one of the books in series states "History can be horrible. Horribly hard to learn. The trouble is it keeps on changing ... In history a 'fact' is sometimes not a fact at all. Really it's just someone's 'opinion'. And opinions can be different for different people ... Teachers will try to tell you there are 'right' and 'wrong' answers even if there aren't."

en.wikipedia.org...(book_series)

Terribly inaccurate, we all know that WW3 is over by 2023.

For the next few years, the Earth was relatively peaceful. Except for the Great Penguin Uprising of 2023. But that's another story. Eventually, advanced democracy spread across the world, leading to the events of World War IV 26 years later.

The Penguins were then harnessed by the US in an effort to invade the Great Tiger nation.

After everything there was only one Country Nuketown, inspired by Black Ops

ww3

Originally posted by bhornbuckle75
reply to post by afraidofthedark

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I think it was simply meant as a lighthearted joke......Seems fairly obvious doesn't it?

This.

It's a light hearted children's book teaching about WW2 and having seen and read Horrible Histories stuff over the years because it looked fun despite my age (way too old for them and studied WW2 in detail for 2 years during school in GCSE History lessons), that WW3 line was a throwaway foray into fantasy as a bit of fun.

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