Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books February 2012

Kamkwamba, William           The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind; by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer; illus. by Elizabeth Zunon.

Dial, 2012                  [32p]

ISBN 978-0-8037-3511-8               $16.99

Reviewed from galleys                     R                      5-9 yrs

 At age fourteen, William is forced to drop out of school; the drought in Malawi has wreaked havoc on his family’s crops and there is no money for tuition. He starts spending time at the American library, where he learns about windmills and their power to “produce electricity and pump water.” Determined (and, according to his neighbors, slightly “misala,” or crazy), he hits the junkyard and constructs a windmill that produces enough energy to light a small bulb. This is only the beginning for William, who later went on to create a solar-powered water pump in his family’s field and is currently an engineering student at Dartmouth with plans to return to Malawi “to work on renewable energy for electricity and pumping water in villages.” This young reader’s edition of Kamkwamba and Mealer’s bestselling adult title is perfectly whittled down for the picture-book set, and the story of William’s creativity and perseverance is well suited for young dreamers. The language is rich and evocative, from descriptions of the ravages of hunger (“alone with the monster in his belly and the lump in his throat”) to his imaginings of how a windmill could impact his village. Zunon’s compositions seamlessly combine oil paintings with touches of cut-paper collage work, and rich, unexpected colors and textures bring warmth and intensity to the scenes.

Kamkwamba’s tale will appeal to a wide cross-section of kids, from those drawn to human-interest stories to those who like to construct and deconstruct things; supplementary details are provided in the extensive author’s note, which includes a photograph of William atop his actual windmill.  HM

Wow! 1292 children read 10,009 books in two weeks on Pearson Foundation's We Give Books website, resulting in over 10,000 children's books to William Kamkwamba's Wimbe village library and additional schools/libraries in the area via William's NGO Moving Windmills. Thanks to Dave Schenone at We Read Books and Lauri Hornik at Dial Books for children. Thank you to our top 3 readers: pvpvrawlings, Harbins, and shaktimama.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: A Story of Passion and Possibility

by Maria Popova

What bamboo poles and bicycle chains have to do with sparking the spirit of entrepreneurship.

When he was only 14 years old, William Kamkwamba dreamt up a windmill that would produce electricity for his village in Malawi. The trouble? As Malawi was experiencing the worst famine in 50 years, William had to drop out of school because his family could no longer afford the $80 annual tuition. This meant he not only had no money to purchase the parts, but also no formal education to teach him how to put them together. Determined, he headed to the local library and voraciously devoured its limited selection of textbooks, then gathered some scrap parts — a bicycle dynamo, bamboo poles, a tractor fan, rubber belts, a bike chain ring — and brought his vision to life, building a functioning windmill. He spent the next five years perfecting the design and went on to found the Moving Windmills Project in 2008 to foster rural economic development and education projects in Malawi.

In 2009, Kamkwamba shared his moving story of perseverance, curiosity, and ingenuity in the memoir The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope. Now, this modern-day entrepreneurial fairy tale is being adapted for young hearts and minds in the beautifully illustrated children’s book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Young Readers Edition. Kamkwamba’s story shines with all the more optimism and tenacity in the hands of 27-year-old artist Elizabeth Zunon, whose rich, lyrical, almost three-dimensional oil-and-cut-paper illustrations, reminiscent of Sophie Blackall’s, vibrate with exceptional whimsy and buoyancy.

Coupled with the launch is a wonderful literacy effort — for every book parents, teacher, and children read online on We Give Books, the Wimbe community lending library, where Kamkwamba’s journey began, gets a new book, up to 10,000. Despite serving some 1,500 pupils, the library currently has no picture books.

Beautiful, moving, and immensely inspirational, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Young Readers Edition tells the kind of story that helps budding entrepreneurs relate to the world through a lens of infinite possibility — the kind of message that might, just might, empower them to harness if not the wind the future itself.

Thanks, Tom

Last chance for you and your kids to take part in our literacy drive around my new children's book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, written with my friend Bryan Mealer and illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon.

For every book you and your kids read online at the We Give Books website (free), a real physical book is given to my village library, up to 10,000. After 10 days and hundreds of kids' effort, we're up to 9,199 book. At this rate that means we'll finish by the weekend. Thank you to Pearson Books' Foundation and the Moving Windmills Project, WK's NGO. Click below and read (it's free)...

Thank you to all the American children who have made it possible to change the lives of the primary students at the school I attended in my hometown of Wimbe, Malawi. These will be the first picture books they've every had.

It's great. Made me homesick a little.