Library News
The closing date for the Premier’s Reading Challenge (PRC) has been extended to Friday 19 September, which is Week Nine of Term Three. Please email Mr Boyce on andrew.boyce@mn.catholic.edu.au if you would like to update your PRC student reading log.
Our LEGO enthusiasts have been busy this term. Building LEGO helps develop fine motor skills and keeps the brain active. It also gives students a rest from computers and is fun and relaxing to build. If anyone would like to donate any unused LEGO sets or pieces to the library, we would be grateful.
Logan B made a dragonfly. He said the “dragonfly is constructed of cardboard and sticky tape and is surprisingly sturdy. I really enjoyed using special techniques to ensure that the top of the dragonfly was solidly built.” Logan enjoyed the challenge of creating a rigid structure with limited resources.
We look forward to seeing his next completed project.
New Lamont Books
The library has just received the latest consignment of Lamont Books which have been placed on the new book displays. One of the new books is the Diet Soda Club, by Chaz Hayden. It is a tender love story about family, trust and what we will do for the ones we love. When their mum leaves, Reed Beckett must take care of his sister who has a life-threatening condition. Seventeen-year-old Reed has been there for Bea, his sister, all along, especially since their dad died. But when their burned-out mom goes on an extended vacation with her new boyfriend, the siblings are left with no food and only each other. With no job prospects on the horizon, Reed begins making and selling fake IDs so he and Bea can survive. The joy and complexity of both caregiving and sibling relationships are at the heart of this authentic and moving novel.
NRL Footy tips need to be submitted into the library by 3.15pm on Thursday afternoons or emailed before the first game of the round kicks off. There are three rounds left. After twenty-three rounds we have a clear leader on one hundred and eleven points. There is one participant in second place on one hundred and ten points, and one participant on one hundred and nine points in third place. A leaderboard is available for viewing in the junior fiction area of the library.
The library has a range of items available for loan including fiction and non-fiction titles; we also have titles available in eBook and audiobook format. We look forward to providing a range of new programs, services and displays to both staff and students this term.
Book Review
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1848. By T.J Ward.
The Communist Manifesto, or as it was originally known as the Manifesto of the Communist Party written by Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels, published in 1848. It is a short political text explaining the ideas and morals behind modern industrial communism, as well as reiterating how capitalism is doomed to fail in on itself. It was at the time, the stepping stone of modern-day communism in Europe and parallels other classical books of its genre, political philosophy.
Being a Penguin Classic from over 180 years ago there is of course a preface. An exceptionally long, tedious preface that did not seem to help in the slightest. I understand for a book of such nature; prior contextual keys can make a very big difference in its legibility. However, I found the preface more burdensome than anything because it is written in such an intricate way I feel as if I would need prior context for the prior context. And let us not mention that the preface is three-fourths of the actual book. The actual manifesto itself was easy enough to get through, the language not as tasking and the ideas clearly put forward.
From what I understood, the bourgeoisie are capitalists, referring but not limited to the French. They are the upper-class who own the factories, the labourers, the property everything. The proletarians are the communists, who want to abolish the capitalism to not only enforce a better quality of life of the working class but also abolish the class struggle. In simple terms, the lower-class of labourers is encouraged to revolt against the upper-class in hope of equality.
Reading the communist manifesto has allowed me to be just a bit more literate when it comes to modern day politics as well as has providing a small exploration of the pre-war political situation in Germany.
Andrew Boyce
Teacher/Librarian