This is an excellent children's book (possibly for 8 years and up). Told by William himself, it is a story about social injustice, science, public health, and creativity. William is a genius, he is brave, he asks questions, finds his own answers, and doesn't give up. The world needs more people like William! ( )

3.5 ( )

This is an inspiring story about a boy who defies the odds and brings electricity to his village. This story can teach children how to shoot for the stars and reach their goals no matter how impossible they may seem. ( )

William Kamkwamba grew up in a village in Malawi without electricity or running water. His family lived comfortably until the famine of 2002. Like many in the country, his family subsisted on a few mouthfuls of food a day. With food prices soaring, William's father could no longer afford to send him to school, and for the next five years, William relied on a tiny village library and his friend's class notes to try and keep up. Most of the books in the library were donations from the US, and amongst them he found a few physics books. Fascinated with the diagrams, William began scrounging materials to do experiments. His dream was to build a windmill so that his family could have light at night and a pump to irrigate their fields and never go hungry again. He succeeds beyond his wildest dreams.

The book starts slow with lots of world building and stories that he heard as a child about witches and magic. The plot picks up with the famine and William's experiments. It's amazing and inspiring to read about his efforts to self-educate and to help his family. The co-author of this memoir lived with William's family for several months and interviewed his friends and family to verify details. The photos and William's crude drawings of his machines are a nice touch. I'm glad my copy of the book included an essay by William at the end which covered the time since the book was first published and the work of his foundation, Moving Windmills. ( )

I almost gave this book 5 stars. I admit it started off a bit slowly. This was a fascinating look at the life of a young man in an African village in Malawi. I loved reading about how he taught himself the principles needed to build his own windmill and create electricity for his household. He showed remarkable ingenuity and tenacity in gathering the materials necessary and making it work. This is an inspiring story that appealed to my "science side" and my emotional side! ( )