The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

This is such a powerful/inspiring/infuriating story, wow. I was on the verge of tears through most of it. The intense odds William Kamkwamba overcame–near starvation during a famine, being forced to drop out of school, having access to only an extremely minimal library of books that weren't even in his own language–to be able to build a working electrical windmill... and also a radio station... like, damn, son.

This is written in a pretty straightforward way, but careful to contextualize concepts that might be stumbling blocks for American/younger readers. I think it does a pretty good job also of contextualizing things like... even though in America you have pre-made toy cars and we make ours of out garbage, it doesn't mean we didn't have super fun childhoods also. IDK, it's a good tone. William is a good narrator of his own life–this book really captures a sense of curiosity and wonder that make all of his small discoveries along the way so exciting.

I think I might be giving this 5 stars because I want to give William Kamkwamba 5 stars as a human being? But it was a really great, inspiring read and I think he and his co-author Bryan Mealer did such a good job getting his story across... so, yeah, 5 stars.

I also think this would be so good for use in a classroom, maybe paired with a STEM activity... like have kids try to build their own windmills so they can see how impressive it is, LOL.

oh also, warning: THE DOG DIES AND IT'S HORRIBLE