6/18/2023 0 Comments Epic books forShe told The Pillar that the Epic digital library - curated through licensing agreements with publishers - included dozens of books about homosexuality and transgenderism, which she found inconsistent with Catholic doctrine on the subject. Ullmann said she was discouraged by what she found. But I downloaded the app and got a free trial so I could check it out.” Instead, she said I could pay for a subscription. “But she didn’t give me access to the product. I didn’t quite know what it was,” Ullmann told The Pillar. “I emailed the teacher, I asked for access to Epic. She said that when she checked classroom emails from earlier in the year, a teacher had once mentioned using Epic Books, but Ullmann hadn’t really given it much thought.īut in March, Ullmann and her husband decided they wanted to know what their daughter was reading.Īt first, they didn’t know how to access Epic’s library. Ullmann said she and her husband were concerned - they’d not heard of Epic Books, and they weren’t sure what kind of books were available through the program. Stephen’s School in Kingsville, Maryland. Rachel Ullmann, a Catholic school parent in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, heard her second-grade daughter talk this March about using the Epic Books digital library on tablets in her classroom at St. Some Catholic school parents have encouraged vigilance about the third-party apps used in Catholic schools, while the director of the USCCB’s education office told The Pillar that the texts and literature in Catholic schools should focus on forming students for Christian discipleship, with a focus on “what is true, good, and beautiful.”Īs parents raise concerns, Catholic schools and dioceses are left to decide how best to address controversial content embedded in the apps that some classrooms have come to rely on. And among other effects, pandemic-related closures accelerated the integration of new technologies and online instruction into Catholic classrooms.īut a shift to more online instruction has also meant an uptick in the use of third-party apps and online programs used by Catholic schools students.Īmid that rise, some parents and administrators are warning that an online digital library called Epic Books gives Catholic school children access to books that promote “gender ideology” and aim to “normalize” LGBT relationships. Price: £8 | Amazon | Waterstones | Foyles | Audible trial The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K.While students have long returned to their classrooms, the pandemic’s impact on Catholic education is still being unpacked. But the true genius of the book is its language - depicting a powerful allegory crushing pain of addiction, loneliness and mental illness will do little to cheer you up, but will capture your attention. The novel reads like a grown-up, nightmarish version of Alice in Wonderland: Kavan takes you on a journey that is hallucinogenic and unsettling, with no regard to whether the narrator is dreaming or awake. And as the ice closes off almost all paths by land and sea, he is running out of time to catch them up. He frequently crosses paths with the Warden, the sometimes-husband but also captor of the young woman, who is always one step ahead. The male protagonist and narrator of the story (who is nameless) is eternally chasing after an elusive and ethereal young woman, while contemplating feelings that become darker and more violent towards her as the ice closes in. Price: £8 | Amazon | Waterstones | Wordery | Audible trial The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester (1957)Īnna Kavan's last (and best) sci fi novel provides a haunting, claustrophobic vision of the end of the world, where an unstoppable monolithic ice shelf is slowly engulfing the earth and killing everything in its wake. A long-awaited screen adaptation is one of the flagship shows of Apple TV+. You can see why it’s one of Elon Musk’s favourite books (along with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and The Moon is A Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein – also recommended). The Foundation series follows Hari Seldon, who is the architect of psychohistory – a branch of mathematics that can make accurate predictions thousands of years in advance, and which Seldon believes is necessary to save the human race from the dark ages. Asimov’s prose can be stilted, and betrays the attitudes of its time in the portrayal of female characters, but it has left a lasting legacy. In the Foundation series, he’s in another mode entirely, charting the rise and fall of empires in sweeping brush strokes. Asimov was a prolific writer, but many of his best works are classic short stories such as Nightfall, or The Last Question, which play out like long jokes with a punchline twist at the end.
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