The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope (P.S.)

Paperback, 288 pages

Published July 27, 2010 by Harper Perennial.

ISBN:
978-0-06-173033-7
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OCLC Number:
503074923

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4 stars (4 reviews)

William Kamkwamba was fourteen years old when famine came to his small town in Malawi, a small country in Africa. When his father couldn't afford to send him to school, he visited a library and started reading about electricity. When he learned that a generator and a motor have the same parts, he attached the motor from a cassette player to a small pinwheel and discovered that he could power a small radio with the wind.

He then realized that with enough electricity, he could provide lights at night without buying expensive kerosene, and more importantly, provide water to provide for a second crop each year to prevent famine. He built his wind generator from scrap and eventually accomplished both aims.

Bryan Mealer helps William tell his story in the first person. William tells the story of famine in a way only a victim can remember. His insights into the …

2 editions

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This story started slow for me.  I'm not a fan of detailed description of childhood in memoirs unless you were doing something very interesting as a child.  Most people aren't.The main point of this story started with a drought and subsequent famine that hit Malawi in the early 2000s.  It was devastating.  The author's family was no longer able to afford his school fees so he had to drop out.  He wanted to continue his education so he went to a library and started to read the books there.  He applied what he learned in a basic physics book to build a windmill from spare parts.  This allowed his family to have lights in their house for the first time.  He went on to build other windmills to pump water for irrigation and personal use, freeing up hours a day that were otherwise spent going to and from wells. …

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Subjects

  • Biographies & Memoirs -- Memoirs