The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer is our community read book for the 2010 Cover 2 Cover Reading Festial.We're looking forward to reading this book along with you and hope that it sparks a lot of discussion. Please join in the conversation by posting your comments on this blog. We're looking forward to hearing what you think!
5 comments:
A few questions to spark discussion as we read our community read book:
What is the role of magic in the story? What about education? Can you contrast the two? Is there room for both in a culture?
What motivates people like William to attempt the unthinkable?
Motivation is out of necessity and is shown on different levels in this book. William is a big thinker and dreamer, but his motivation was both to help his family and to try to learn in spite of his inability to attend school. He did not want to end up like the boys that hang around bars or the market with nothing constructive to do all day. He also did not want to be trapped into a farming life. Instead, he created his own path of independent study to try and solve practical problems he faced and further his education. His parents did the same thing when they decided to take the last of their flour, make cakes and sell them in the market. It was a risky move, but it created a long term solution to help get them through the famine. Practical problems, often dire situations, motivate people like William. Innovate or die is often used in business, but is a reality in this circumstance.
This was a fantastic, inspirational read. Thank you FPL for selecting this book for Cover 2 Cover!
William seems intrinsically motivated, driven to build his windmill and complete his education in an effort to help his family and community. Even when laughed at by members of his community, he did have support from family and friends, and a small library, that helped him accomplish his goal in circumstances unimaginable to most of us. I wonder what he'll do next.
In response to the role of magic in William's village, I thought it was interesting that William seemed to think there should be legal implications for individuals practicing bad magic but he too was falsely accused of causing a drought because of his magical windmill.
It was an interesting perspective to read about because science has explained away most 'magic' in our culture. However, in a village that is not accustomed to even electricity, individuals who are science minded still have a deep ingrained belief in magic.
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