The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

★★★★★

My overall appreciation of this book is the same as it was for the Young Readers Edition, which I also gave 5 stars, so my review of the content is basically the same. Here, I will just note the differences between this book (the original version) and the Young Readers Edition.

The Young Readers Edition is an excellent re-telling of this book at a level that is appropriate for middle grade readers. There are lots of familiar passages that are shared between the two editions. This original version, however, tells us more about William's father Trywell, his Uncle John, and Chewa culture. We also get a broader understanding of Malawian history and politics, and the book touches upon more mature topics such as AIDS, prostitutes, and watching a loved one almost die from malaria. Some of the additional content include elements of violence.

Unlike the glossy color photos in the Young Readers Edition, the photos in this book are black and white and interspersed in context, with more extensive captions. Many of the photos are the same, but this book also has additional photos not included in the Young Readers Edition.

It's worth noting that this book was published in 2009, 6 years before the Young Readers Edition was published in 2015. The epilogue to the Young Readers Edition has more recent updates that aren't in this book, including William's graduation from Dartmouth. But, the edition I read of the original version had an "About the Book" section, written in 2010, that gave a detailed and enjoyable account of William's book tour in America, including entertaining details not mentioned in the Young Readers Edition.

Incidentally, in case you're interested, the Netflix movie is based on this book, so there are scenes in the movie that are recognizable from this version, but not the Young Readers Edition. The movie took some poetic license, but generally stayed very close to actual events.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Young Readers Edition by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

★★★★★

My son in 6th grade read this book and gave it 5 stars. I agree!

The narrative voice was straightforward and matter-of-fact, but also conveyed the thoughtfulness and patience of the storyteller. The first half of the memoir described William's life in Malawi, from the days of care-free independence, hunting for birds with his faithful dog, to the months of heartwrenching hunger and fear, witnessing the horrors of famine. His account of growing up without electricity, running water, or even school is sure to make an impression on young readers.

The second half of the book centered around William's efforts to build the windmill. In this day and age, when most of us take electricity for granted, it is eye-opening to see how revolutionary a single light bulb can be, a means to achieve freedom from darkness. William's motivation and ability to self-learn from books written in English, without even a solid grasp of the English language, was remarkable. The extent to which he re-purposed the discarded junkyard scraps of an abandoned tobacco plantation was extraordinary to say the least. Without the proper tools, William even made his own tools!

I appreciated that the book also talked about William's ideas and inventions that didn't work out. It's important for young readers to see that even with William's winning combination of interest, talent, hard work, and ingenuity, he had some defeats, too. Impressively, William's goals never wavered; every innovation was designed to solve a particular problem in his home or community, and he sought to improve the lives of his neighbors and fellow Malawians.

I really enjoyed the glossy color photos. Also, the Netflix movie is a great dramatization, a worthy supplement to this book. I watched the movie as an introduction, then I read this book to get the full true story, and now I am going to read the original version (not the young readers edition), to learn even more about William and Malawi!

Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds

★★★★

This book is a collection of 10 short stories all set in the same time and place. When the closing bell rings at Latimer Middle School, students go their separate ways, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends. Every kid has a story. Taken together, we see how complex these students' lives can be, even in middle school.

I really enjoyed this book's format and storytelling. Each chapter starts with a small illustration, one part of a larger tableau (the cover art) depicting all the stories' main characters as they leave school at the end of the day. The students are all classmates, so they weave in and out of each other's stories, a tangential character in one story becoming the main character of another. I can see these crossovers being especially fun for young readers. Maybe they'll read a story and think, "Oh! This story is all about that kid from the other story!" or, "I remember these kids from their story, I know where they are going!"

Narration styles vary; stories may be told in a straightforward chronology, with flashbacks, or using some other unconventional method. At times the prose blends into poetry. Metaphors and similes abound. I have to admit, I am a very literal reader, so I am not sure I understood the "school bus falling from the sky" line that kept popping up throughout the book. The last story provides both some metaphorical context and a literal explanation for the line, which gives a nice sense of closure, though I'm still not sure I get the falling out of the sky part. Maybe it's about school buses representing the unexpected, or maybe it's just silly fun.

As usual, Jason Reynolds does not disappoint with the diversity and complexity of his characters and stories. We have kids of color, yes, but we also get glimpses of illness (sickle cell anemia, cancer, dementia), loss of a loved one, fear (of change, of dogs, of danger), bullying, homophobia, and incarceration. These hard things don't dominate, though, because the young heroes of these stories are busy with hustling schemes, video games, humor, and young love. They are supported by friends who are loyal and brave, and by familiar adults like teachers, a custodian, a crossing guard, a store owner, neighbors, and even a passer-by, people who might seem peripheral, but really are grounding.

My ratings for individual stories ranged from 3 to 5 stars, so I figured on 4 stars overall.

Logans Roundup

Realistic fiction about three generations of a Southern black family spanning the years from just after the Civil War to the Great Depression.

• The Land (#1) ★★★★★
• The Well (#2) ★★★★★
• Song of the Trees (#3) ★★★
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (#4) ★★★★★

The Well (Logans #2) by Mildred D. Taylor

★★★★★

Like Song of the Trees, The Well is essentially a short story.

The book is written from the perspective of a grown-up David telling a story from his childhood. It's easy to imagine the words spoken aloud, as part of a family's oral tradition.

This is the 4th book of the series that I've read. Having already gotten to know the main characters from other books, I went into this one feeling fully invested in the Logan family. Being able to follow the arcs of character development was certainly a factor in why I was so captivated by the book. I was moved by the poignancy of an elder Ma Rachel, still so affected by the importance of her name, and I was saddened to see Paul-Edward talk of his brother, his childhood playmate, as "that white boy" (p. 73-74).

A lot of big themes were packed into this short story. There was Hammer's strong sense of pride and justice, despite the injustice of the laws and reality of the time; David's dedication to family and peace in his quiet willingness to take a completely unjustified beating; Caroline's keen understanding of people and events, coupled with smart thinking and quick action, in her efforts to help ensure as good an outcome as possible with the sheriff; and Paul-Edward's thoughtful and sensitive treatment of Joe McCalister.

The shocking unfairness depicted in this story is as heartbreaking as it is infuriating. Everyone should read this series to better understand a part of American history that isn't always taught in schools, but should be.

Parents should know that dialog is appropriate to the time period, and the n-word is used quite a bit.

Nightfall (Keeper of the Lost Cities #6) by Shannon Messenger

★★★

*** Warning: This review contains spoilers!! ***

There's a lot of explaining in this book. The first several chapters are basically a giant recap to the whole series, which was fine with me because at this point, all the details are getting muddled in my head.

Nightfall very satisfyingly brings in Sophie's human family. I appreciated this new development quite a bit, since I always thought it was a glaring omission of convenience for the Harry Potter series to not integrate Hermione's muggle life into the magical world. 

There were a lot of exciting developments, a couple new characters, and Sophie's enhancing ability turned out to be more interesting than I expected.

Still, the unfolding story was as convoluted as ever, with Sophie and others making tenuous connections to move the story forward. The plot seemed to be driven more by explanation than by actual events.

Until now, I had brushed off the love square as an intermittent distraction. But potential relationships were more front and center in this installment, and I just found it to be an annoyance. Probably most readers enjoy the tension, and the choosing of sides for perfect pairings, but I'm just not a fan of superfluous romance that doesn't actually move the story along.

I also found myself disappointed at the lack of storytelling detail. For example, in the sparring match between Keefe and Dimitar, I didn't get any sense of how Keefe, a teenage boy with no training in defense or weapons or fighting, was able to best the highly trained warrior king with only his levitation skill. An actual play-by-play of how he made his strikes would have been nice. Also, more than once, it was a big mystery how Lady Gisela was able to get past Sandor's goblin guard. Apparently, Keefe's ogre bodyguard Ro was able to figure it out "within about three seconds" (p. 559), but we readers were still left in the dark.