Miss Renée here from Pasadena Water and Power. Today we're going to be reading the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. This book is written by William Kumquamba and Brian Mueller. This book is actually a true story which is what I love most about it. It's about a young boy in Africa who builds a windmill so he can bring power to his village.
So let's get settled in. Find a comfy spot, whether you're inside your house or outside in the yard. Let's get cozy and ready to read together. All right, let's get started. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.
In a small village in Malawi where people had no money for lights, nightfall came quickly and hurried poor farmers to bed. But for William, the darkness was best for dreaming. He dreamed of building things and taking them apart, like the trucks with bottle cap wheels parked under his bed, and pieces of radio that he'd cracked open and wondered, if I can hear the music, then where is the band? His grandpa's tales of magic also whispered in the pitch black of his room.
Witch planes passed through the windows while ghost dancers twirled around the room as if a hundred men were inside their bodies. At dawn in the fields, William scanned the maize rows for magical beings, and then wondered as a truck rumbled past, how does its engine make it go? Pay attention where you throw that hoe, his father shouted, you'll cut off your foot. So here's William working in the fields. For all its power over dancers and flying things, magic could not bring the rain.
And without water, the sun rose angry each morning and scorched the fields. turning the maze into dust. And without food, Malawi began to starve.
Soon William's father gathered the children and said, from now on we eat only one meal per day. Make it last. And in the evenings, they sat around the lantern and ate their handful, watching hungry people pass like spirits along the roads.
This is them eating. Money also disappeared with the rain. Papani, his father said, I'm sorry. You will have to drop out of school. And now William stood on the road and watched the lucky students pass, alone with the monster in his belly and the lump in his throat.
And for weeks he sulked under the mango tree, until he remembered the library down the road, a gift from the Americans. He found science books filled with brilliant pictures, and with his English dictionary close by, William put together how engines moved those big trucks. and how radios pulled their music from the sky.
But the greatest picture of all was a machine taller than the tallest tree with blades like a fan, a giant pinwheel, something to catch magic, and slowly he built the sentence, Windmills can produce electricity and pump water. He closed his eyes and saw a windmill outside his home, pulling electricity from the breeze and bringing light to the dark valley. And he saw the machine drawing cool water from the ground, sending it gushing through the thirsty fields, turning the maze tall and green, even when the farmer's prayers for rain went unanswered.
This windmill was more than a machine. It was a weapon to fight hunger. Maggetzi amatheo, he whispered. I will build electric wind. In the junkyard, pieces appeared like rusted treasure in the tall grass, a tractor fan, some pipe.
and bearings and bolts that required every muscle to remove. Tonga! he'd shout to the birds and spiders holding up his prize. But as William drank his medals home, people called out, This boy is masala.
Only crazy people played with trash. After many weeks, William arranged his pieces in the dirt. A broken bicycle, rusted bottle caps, and plastic pipe. Even a small generator that powered a headlight on a bike.
And for three days he bolted, banged, and tinkered while chickens squawked and dogs barked and neighbors shook their heads saying, What's Masala doing now? His cousin Jeffrey and best friend Gilbert soon appeared. Muli Banji, they greeted. Can we help with electric wind?
Grab your pangas and follow me, he said, and took them into the forest. And together they swung their sharp blades into the trunks of blue gum trees. They hammered them together to make the tower, and standing atop, William shouted, Bring it up!
while the boys tugged and heaved. The crowd gathered below and gazed at the strange machine that now leaned and wobbled like a clumsy dragon. Some giggles, others teased, but William waited for the wind.
Like always, it came. First a breeze, then a gusting gale, and the tower swayed and the blades spun round. Oh, it's working.
With sore hands once slowed by hunger and darkness, William connected wires to a small bulb, which flickered at first, then surged as bright as the sun. Tonga! he shouted.
I have made electric wind! Look at that. Wachita bueno!
a man yelled. Well done! As the doubters clapped and cheered, William knew he had just begun.
Light could not fill empty bellies, but another windmill could soak the dry ground, creating food where once there was none. Magetia mefo. Electric wind can feed my country, William thought. And that was the strongest magic of all. The end.
So the back of this book actually tells us all about William Kukwamba, who is a real person and the author and hero of our book. He was born in 1987, and like many people in Maui and the rest of the Sub-Saharan Africa, William's father, tribal, was a farmer. So they grew corn, that's maize, when we hear the word maize we're talking about corn. And when he could no longer go to school, William did have to drop out. But instead of sulking around, he began visiting a library.
And there he found books on science. And even though he didn't speak good English, he used the dictionaries to learn them. And that's where he did get the idea of the windmill.
This is all a true story. And when William finally was able to, you know, power that windmill with a car battery, it allowed him to put light bulbs in his parents'home even. His dream of pumping water wasn't achieved until several years later, but it did come true. And in 2007, William was discovered by some journalists and invited to speak at a TED conference in Tanzania.
He'd never been in an airplane or even seen the internet. And people were moved by his story and donated money to not only help send him back to school, but also to install a solar-powered water pump that irrigates his father's fields. So that is the story of William Kamkwambi.
and the boy who harnessed the wind. I hope you enjoyed that book as much as I did. Renewable resources like wind energy are a really important part of our future. What I love most is that William saw a need in his village and he took the initiative and was creative about problem solving. You can do that too.
If you liked the book, please let me know. I want to hear from you. Write me a letter, draw me a picture, send me an email. Let me know what you thought.
what you learned from the book, what you liked, and if there's other books you'd like us to read together. Have a great day!