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Reviews tagging 'Death'
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: A Memoir by William Kamkwamba, Bryan Mealer
11 reviews
ikiteahill's review against another edition
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, and Medical content
Minor: Ableism, Bullying, Violence, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, and Classism
patwebb88's review against another edition
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.
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal death, Death, and Pandemic/Epidemic
malmark's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Grief, and Classism
jessicamdawn's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Mental illness, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
This book contains detailed imagery of people going through a famine and starvation. These were not available as content warnings, but they are a big part of William's life, so please be aware before you start reading.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
misslynette's review against another edition
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Minor: Child death and Vomit
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 against another edition
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