Book Sharing by Ms Wan

28th June, 2022

Good morning, everyone.

Have you ever read any mysterious stories from Greece,

like the story of Narcissus, the renowned self-lover, who was a young beautiful man but ended up falling in love with his own reflection in the water and dying in despair? Maybe you are not familiar with the stories, but what about the magical stories of China? Have you ever heard some of the Chinese tales? Do you know how the Earth and the Heaven came into being before everything started? In science, we know that everything started after the Big Bang, but what about the story in the Chinese folklores? You may know the famous story of an archer named Yi shooting the suns, but now with this book, you can know the whole picture behind the stories. 

If you want to know more about what happened in ancient China, especially the mysterious legends, you must borrow Tales from China from our school library. It’s a collection of famous Chinese legends. Since most of you must have heard some of our legends, you will find it easier to understand the tales. As the old saying goes ‘One doesn't understand a culture until one knows its stories’. This will be a good start for you to better understand our own culture with stories.

I hope you will enjoy reading Tales from China. Thank you.

Book Recommendation by Mr Cotton
14^th June, 2022

Good morning, everybody.

Last Sunday, I went up to Victoria Peak. Now this is not the first time I have been there, but it is always a place I enjoy going. The views from the top are spectacular. I love looking out over the tall buildings of Central, across to Kowloon and the beautiful reflection of the sun on the waters of Victoria Harbour. Victoria Peak really is an awesome place.

This brings me to the book I want to talk about today. It is called 100 Most Awesome Things on the Planet and it was written by Anna Claybourne.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part is about awesome natural wonders and the second part is about awesome human creations.

As I mentioned at the start, I think Victoria Peak is a fantastic place. But this book doesn’t just talk about places. It also mentions other things in the natural world such as animals, weather phenomenon like tornados and hurricanes, and disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis. Even though the book title suggests it is about awesome things on planet Earth, it also contains wonderful facts about space as well.

In the part about awesome human creations, places built by humans such as The Great Wall of China and the pyramids of Egypt are mentioned. But there are also sections on things like great machines built by humans, amazing buildings, amazing engineering feats such as the Three Gorges Dam in China and even different kinds of spacecraft.

Here are a couple of examples from the book which I really enjoyed. Tornados produce the fastest winds in the world, even faster than typhoons. The winds can reach speeds of 500 kph. I also learnt that although tornados can happen anywhere in the world, the central part of the United States has more tornados per year than anywhere else on the planet. In the awesome human creations section, I learnt that in 1977, a spacecraft called Voyager 1 was sent into space to explore the solar system. In 2012, it left the solar system and entered deep space. More amazing is that scientists on Earth can still receive signals from the spacecraft and probably will continue to do so for a few more years yet. I also learnt that the spacecraft has what is called a ‘golden record’ which has information about Earth and humans in case Voyager 1 is ever discovered by aliens in the future.

So, everyone, if you are interested about awesome things, then this book is for you. You can find it in the library by asking the librarian or come and see me and I will help you find it. When you read it, you may agree or disagree with some of the things in the book being awesome. Let me know your opinion. Who knows, you might even have your own ideas about what should be included in this book. Thank you.