ikiteahill's review against another edition

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hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

This book is going on my list of books I'd recommend to literally anyone. I feel like even people who don't typically read a lot or say they don't like reading would enjoy this book. I learned way more about how electricity works than I ever expected to and it's made me curious to learn more and be more adventurous with experimenting and inventing and being resourceful and responsible with our resources. 

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patwebb88's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

4.0

I really enjoyed this book. It was informative into how they live in a third world country that is not as developed; makes you grateful for what we have. It was sad in some places as is reality. Also inspired me to not give up on my dreams.

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malmark's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

4.75


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jessicamdawn's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

4.5


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sassmistress's review against another edition

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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. 

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misslynette's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

This is by far one of the most inspirational stories I've read in my entire life. 

One thing that particularly impressed me is the way that Kamkwamba and his co-author are able to describe what he built in a way that even a non-engineer myself can understand.

Brb, recommending it to everyone I know.  

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skyllarduncan's review against another edition

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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.

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100_pages_hr's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0


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meaganbrooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

5.0


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multilingual_s's review against another edition

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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. 

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