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A review by bookishwendy
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba
4.0
This is a book I wish all my students would read. I may see if I can get my hands on a few copies as prizes for our end-of-term grammar competition.
What a nice change to have a positive and hopeful book come out of sub-Saharan Africa! William Kamwamba is an incredibly intelligent and industrious young man from Malawi who rescues himself, his family, perhaps even his village from extreme poverty by building his own power-generating windmill. For me, the most interesting aspect was a cultural one, in which we see how magic and science are at odds with one another in William's daily experiences. The descriptions of a famine's impact on subsistence farmers who receive no buffer from the government during bad times was also eye-opening. However, the misery is tempered by William's enthusiasm and delight each time he solves some electrical engineering problem with only an English textbook, bicycle parts, scrapyard reconnoiters, and his own creativity. The audiobook narrator infuses every word with enthusiasm and is a delight to listen to. My only critique is that the book perhaps over-simplifies the broader context of African poverty and politics--but it's a good places for student readers to start. Now that William's story is out, it seems that for him, the sky is the limit--and I truly hope this is the case, and yet...what about all the other intelligent yet poor high school dropouts without windmills to prove their worth?
It will be interesting to see what more Mr. Kamkwamba can accomplish within his home country in the next few decades. Now his town has solar-pumped water--perhaps it's only a matter of time before other rural areas around Malawi see similar, home-grown power solutions.
What a nice change to have a positive and hopeful book come out of sub-Saharan Africa! William Kamwamba is an incredibly intelligent and industrious young man from Malawi who rescues himself, his family, perhaps even his village from extreme poverty by building his own power-generating windmill. For me, the most interesting aspect was a cultural one, in which we see how magic and science are at odds with one another in William's daily experiences. The descriptions of a famine's impact on subsistence farmers who receive no buffer from the government during bad times was also eye-opening. However, the misery is tempered by William's enthusiasm and delight each time he solves some electrical engineering problem with only an English textbook, bicycle parts, scrapyard reconnoiters, and his own creativity. The audiobook narrator infuses every word with enthusiasm and is a delight to listen to. My only critique is that the book perhaps over-simplifies the broader context of African poverty and politics--but it's a good places for student readers to start. Now that William's story is out, it seems that for him, the sky is the limit--and I truly hope this is the case, and yet...what about all the other intelligent yet poor high school dropouts without windmills to prove their worth?
It will be interesting to see what more Mr. Kamkwamba can accomplish within his home country in the next few decades. Now his town has solar-pumped water--perhaps it's only a matter of time before other rural areas around Malawi see similar, home-grown power solutions.