The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
A teacher’s look at why this book belongs in the Read-to-Me, Read-by-Me stage.
Why it fits Read-to-Me, Read-by-Me (for the kindergarten-ready set, between being read to and reading alone)
A Malawian teenager builds a windmill from scrap and saves his village. Ingenuity, library books, and persistence - a true story children can act on. The picture-book edition distills it perfectly for this age.
What makes it special
A teenager, a drought, a library book, and a windmill built from scrap — persistence rendered in its purest documented form. Elizabeth Zunon's oil-and-collage spreads make the machine rising from junk look like the magic it functionally was. For children who summon everything by tapping glass, it shows power built by hand.
From the publisher
William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi, a country where magic ruled and modern science was mystery. It was also a land withered by drought and hunger, and a place where hope and opportunity were hard to find. But William…
About William Kamkwamba
William Kamkwamba built a windmill from scrap metal and library diagrams at fourteen to power his family's home in drought-stricken Malawi; he went on to Dartmouth, TED talks, and a Netflix film — and his memoir became this picture book.
Kicked out of school because his family couldn't pay fees, he kept studying in the village library, where a physics book with windmill diagrams — in a language he could barely read — changed everything. The book is his own story, co-told for the children he once was.
Also by this author: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Young Readers Edition)
More from “True Stories, Big World”
This book is part of The Best Books for Beginning Readers: 30 Teacher Picks (Read-to-Me, Read-by-Me) in our guide The Best Children’s Books by Age — 120 books chosen by the Montessori-certified teachers at Creative Minds Montessori in Frisco, TX. Come see how we build readers →
Nobody paid for this review — not the author, not the publisher — and the store link above earns us nothing. Our only interest is the reader this book fits.