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Reviews tagging 'Animal death'
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Young Readers Edition by William Kamkwamba, Bryan Mealer
21 reviews
sassmistress's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
4.5
This review is only applicable to the YOUNG READERS EDITION. I understand the original publication may have a few additional content concerns.
I loved this book! It's an inspiring, informational autobiography of a young Malawian inventor that beautifully captures the African spirit. "Where the world sees trash, Africa recycles. Where the world sees junk, Africa sees rebirth." Thank you to everyone who recommended it for our Africa unit study this year; it checks so many of my boxes--rural life, city life, biography, African author, hopeful bent...! As a tech person, I also adore the passionate "you can do STEM as a kid with what you have" message. I also love the implicit acknowledgement that he didn't do it alone, by showing all the ways he was supported by his friends and family (even if he got a little puffed up from time to time).
Target audience: The author is very passionate about the technology he's learned about, so there are a number of (very accessible) explanations of things he figured out how to fix or build from scratch, including his windmill, a light switch, circuit breaker, AC vs DC current, radios, batteries, and many other topics mostly in the category of electrical engineering. Because of this and lengthy descriptions of a severe and tragic famine his family survived, I would guess this is appropriate for middle school or older. I have young children so I can't gauge this well, but Amazon says as low as 5th grade.
I loved this book! It's an inspiring, informational autobiography of a young Malawian inventor that beautifully captures the African spirit. "Where the world sees trash, Africa recycles. Where the world sees junk, Africa sees rebirth." Thank you to everyone who recommended it for our Africa unit study this year; it checks so many of my boxes--rural life, city life, biography, African author, hopeful bent...! As a tech person, I also adore the passionate "you can do STEM as a kid with what you have" message. I also love the implicit acknowledgement that he didn't do it alone, by showing all the ways he was supported by his friends and family (even if he got a little puffed up from time to time).
Target audience: The author is very passionate about the technology he's learned about, so there are a number of (very accessible) explanations of things he figured out how to fix or build from scratch, including his windmill, a light switch, circuit breaker, AC vs DC current, radios, batteries, and many other topics mostly in the category of electrical engineering. Because of this and lengthy descriptions of a severe and tragic famine his family survived, I would guess this is appropriate for middle school or older. I have young children so I can't gauge this well, but Amazon says as low as 5th grade.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Gore
Moderate: Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Classism
Minor: Alcoholism, Bullying, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic
- The narrator describes local beliefs and customs regarding "witch doctors" and "wizards", but they are portrayed as charlatans. A few stories are told about the rumors people tell about curses and cures, and the narrator in his childhood had someone cut his skin and put a "potion" on it to give him superhuman strength, then realizes he's been had when he starts and loses a fight.- Other spiritual content: the narrator's father is a Presbyterian minister. A habit of going to church is mentioned once. I count four instances of "my God" used as an exclamation equivalent to "wow". Other mentions of God are: "with God on your side, [the wizards] have no power against you," "God has blessed you," "it was as if God was rewarding us for our sacrifice," a heartfelt "I pray God blesses them all," and a one-line explanation of the Noah story when saying his family nicknamed him Noah--"everyone laughed at Noah, but look what happened."
- A number of chapters are dedicated to the 2001 famine in Malawi. This includes mass starvation and all that entails--large crowds begging, babies crying and mothers begging for anything to feed them, people eating what is normally not considered edible, some theft and a crowd panic at a distribution location, detailed descriptions of the physical effects of death by starvation, people dying by the roadside.
- Brief mention of men who waste their lives away taking small jobs to pay for a night of drinking alcohol.
- There's an explanation of the deforestation happening in Malawi, what it does to the rest of the country's environment, and how it affects the health of the people living in the region.
- In case anyone has a problem with insects, there are a few swarms depicted. Botflies coming out of a latrine (when describing a diarrheal disease outbreak), termites destroying a roof and landing all over the boy's bedroom, and ants on the swollen tongue of a dead animal.
- There is a dog
krosebooks's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.25
There are some slower parts in the book, but gosh this book is so inspiring, amazing, and sad. It is an emotional roller coaster where you will root for the MC throughout the book. Beautiful ending.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
leweylibrary's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
4.25
The beginning was quite slow for me and there's a couple of spots with a dog that are just not fun--one of which is absolutely gutting--but I learned a lot and holy crap how impressive is it that he did all that just on his own? Plus, of course, lots of library love because access to books there, even old discarded textbooks, allowed him to learn about something he was curious about while he couldn't afford to go to school. I'm really curious where and what he is up to now.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
amisk23's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
2.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death
sarahjsnider's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
slow-paced
4.0
I plan to assign this to my ELL students in fall. The plot is a bit slow but I think the language is at the right level.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
skyllarduncan's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
slow-paced
4.5
This was a really inspiring, emotional story about hope and innovation. It was a little slow and took time for me to really get into it, and some of the technical descriptions got very detailed so it was easy to let my mind wander–but overall I learned a lot through this novel and it was a story filled with nothing but heart from William Kamkwamba.
Yes, I cried when the dog died.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Death
100_pages_hr's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Death, and Blood
meaganbrooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, and Death
multilingual_s's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
4.0
An entertaining book that lives from the fresh and unusual perspective of the narrator. A few more illustrative sketches to go along with the technical descriptions would have been fine, but for me it was understandable. Especially because I took some electrical engineering courses at university this was a nice reminder what human ingenuity can achieve.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, and Grief
Moderate: Child death, Excrement, and Death of parent
kimiwriter's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
4.5
The biography of William Kamkwamba who built a windmill in his village in Malawi in order to bring electricity, and eventually running water, to his family and neighbors. This is an amazing story about Kamkwamba's life and his scientific inquires and advancements despite the hardships and obstacles that got in his way of a traditional education.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death and Violence
Minor: Death
This is an account of true events, specifically the famine that affected Malawi in 2001 where many people starved and died.