VICTORIAN PREMIERS’ READING CHALLENGE

The Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge is now open and Lalor Secondary College is excited to be participating again in 2019.

The Challenge is open to all Victorian children to Year 10 in recognition of the importance of reading for literacy development. It is not a competition, but a personal challenge for children to read a set number of books by mid September 2019. Children from Years 7 to Year 10 are challenged to read 15 books. Ten of these books need to be from the Challenge list.

All children who meet the Challenge will receive a certificate of achievement signed by the Victorian Premier. They will also receive many other rewards during the year including value cards and house points. All Year 7 and 8 students will receive their usernames and passwords in the next few weeks. Students in Years 9 and 10 who would like to participate can speak to one of the library staff members. More details are available on the VPRC website at www.education.vic.gov.au/prc

NEW BOOKS

The Library has been stocking up on new books. Here is a small selection of the new books that have arrived in the last fortnight. More new books can be seen on our Instagram account at lalorsc_library Students are reminded that they can make suggestions for new books in the Suggestions Book at the circulation desk.

Let Her Fly: A Father’s Journey and the Fight for Equality

Ziauddin Yousafzai, Louise Carpenter, Malala Yousafzai

For over twenty years, Ziauddin Yousafzai has been fighting for equality - first for Malala, his daughter - and then for all girls throughout the world. Let Her Fly looks at what it means to love, to have courage and fight for what is inherently right. Personal in its detail and universal in its themes, this landmark book shows why we must all keep fighting for the rights of girls and women everywhere.

Woo’s Wonderful World of Maths

Eddie Woo

Why is a rainbow curved? Why aren’t left-handers extinct? How is a sunflower like a synchronised swimmer? Why is ‘e’ a magic number?

The answer to these questions is contained within one simple word: MATHS. Because maths is all about patterns, and our universe is extraordinarily patterned.

With enthusiasm, humour and heart, Eddie Woo shows how card tricks, conspiracy theories, teacups, killer butterflies, music, lightning and so much more illuminate the spellbinding world of maths that surrounds us.

To Kill a Mockingbird: Graphic novel adaptation

Harper Lee, Fred Fordham

A haunting portrait of race and class, innocence and injustice, hypocrisy and heroism, tradition and transformation in the Deep South of the 1930s, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird remains as important today as it was upon its initial publication in 1960, during the turbulent years of the Civil Rights movement. Now, this most beloved and acclaimed novel is reborn for a new age as a gorgeous graphic novel. Scout, Jem, Boo Radley, Atticus Finch and the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, are all captured in vivid and moving illustrations by artist Fred Fordham.

Hunger

Michael Grant

An uneasy calm has settled over Perdido Beach. But soon fear explodes into desperation as starvation sets in and the mob look to place blame. For the `normals' the buck must stop somewhere - with the ‘freaks’. More and more kids are developing strange powers and, just as frightingly, so are the animals in the FAYZ: talking coyotes, swimming bats and deadly worms with razor-sharp teeth are just the beginning. For Sam Temple the strain of leadership is beginning to show and he’s got more that just dwindling rations and in- fighting to worry about. Caine is back with the psychotic whiphand, Drake, by his side. And in the background lies the greatest danger of all - and he needs to be fed.

Astrophysics for Young People in a Hurry

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Neil deGrasse Tyson has become one of the most recognisable and respected figures in science. In this adaptation of his genuinely accessible The New York Times number one bestseller Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Tyson has for the first time-served up the universe in a handy, portable package designed specifically for young readers. From the difference between a star and a supernova to what matter and dark matter really are, Astrophysics for Young People in a Hurry will turn young people into budding experts on the fundamental rules and unknowns of our universe. Along the way, Tyson’s characteristic wit ensures a journey packed with fun.

We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World Malala Yousafzai

Nobel Peace Prize winner and bestselling author Malala Yousafzai introduces some of the faces behind the statistics and news stories we read or hear every day about the millions of people displaced worldwide. Malala’s experiences travelling the world and visiting refugee camps caused her to reconsider her own displacement - first as an Internally Displaced Person when she was a young child in Pakistan, and then as an international activist who could travel anywhere in the world, except to the home she loved. In We Are Displaced, which is part memoir, part communal storytelling, Malala not only explores her own story of adjusting to a new life while longing for home, but she also shares the personal stories of some of the incredible girls she has met on her various journeys -girls who have lost their community, relatives, and often the only world they’ve ever known.

Kick the Moon

Muhammad Khan

Fifteen-year-old Ilyas is under pressure from everyone: exams are looming and his teachers just won’t let up, his dad wants him to join the family business and his mates don’t care about any of it. There’s no space in Ilyas' life to just be a teenager. Serving detention one day, Ilyas finds a kindred spirit in Kelly Matthews, who is fed up with being pigeonholed as the good girl, and their friendship blows the social strata of high school wide open. But when Kelly catches the eye of one of the local bad boys, Imran, he decides to seduce her for a bet - and Ilyas is faced with losing the only person who understands him. Standing up to Imran puts Ilyas' family at risk, but it’s time for him to be the superhero he draws in his comic-books, and go kick the moon.

No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison

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Chess Club

CHESS CLUB meets in the Library every Thursday at lunchtime in the library.

Everyone is welcome.

A REVIEW OF MRS. DALLOWAY BY VIRGINIA WOOLF

How does one describe Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf? How does one describe any novel of hers? To be frankly honest, I do not know, but I will try my best. The title character is upper-class socialite, Clarissa Dalloway, an externally stone-fleshed but internally soft-stringed woman. In a single day, her image is merged together with that of the similarly different, shell-shocked war veteran, Septimus Warren Smith. The story begins simply enough; “Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.” But that singular line triggers an earthquake, cracks begin to grow, a singular story begins to come apart and spreads into two, three, four and five pieces. As she is visited by her own memories, Clarissa finds that she has more than simple errands she must perform as a wife and mother for the day. She must also perform a dissection of herself as a person. Her state is interlocked with that of Septimus Warren Smith, whose ghost is also himself. But unlike Clarissa, he can find no more happiness in contentment. By so closely presenting these two characters together, by presenting the minds of every other character who sees or hears them, Woolf illustrates the non-existing bounds of the human mind and the tormentor that is a person’s inner self. Mrs. Dalloway is a psychological revelation, it is an odyssey of the mind. Each reader must find their own way through the novel and by doing so, they will find their own inner thoughts jarring to their outer, physical beings.

BY: VICTORIA WINATA 10H

Boost Corner

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