What book is this? Sci-fi?

My fifth grade teacher read this book aloud to it us and I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called. I remember it was some sort of prequel or something I think. But the main character was a guy in this futuristic (I think) society where these tri-pod machine/ alien things were taking over. And the love interest was this girl who for some reason shaved her head and that was some sort of cultural indication that the main guy was really shocked over. Not a lot to go off of. Sorry. It might have something to do with War of the Worlds. I don't remember. Thank you for any possible help!
 
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