The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Week 4

Welcome to the final Online Book Club discussion of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.

Did you enjoy the ending? I thought the last chapters were the most interesting chapters of the book. I was glad to see how making the windmill changed William's life so much. If you're curious about William's windmill projects now, check out the site, Moving Windmills, and read about what the foundation is doing in Malawi now. 

One of the most exciting parts in this last section was when William was able to share his story at the TED conference. What a cool experience! I was so glad that everyone welcomed him to the event and showed him how remarkable he is. If you'd like to watch William's speech at the event, check out the video below! 

How excited were you when William's windmill worked and provided light for his room? Again, I was so surprised by William's fearlessness and ingenuity when he decided to take on wiring his house for electricity. He made his own circuit breakers, for goodness sakes! He was so lucky that his house never burned down. Were you curious about how he was able to make his own light switches? Check out the photo below, taken from William's blog, if you'd like to see what his homemade light switches looked like. I can't imagine how revolutionary it was to have light in the evenings at home. And, how handy it was to have a local place to charge phones! I enjoyed reading about how his family was able to listen to the radio at night, too. That was so cool. 

I was nervous when people thought that William's windmill was bringing bad luck to the village. I was really worried that someone would damage his windmill in retaliation, but, thankfully, that didn't happen. Weren't you sad that William's mom had malaria? I was glad that she recovered. 

I couldn't believe how quickly William got notoriety for his windmill. It seemed like it all happened so quickly. I was so glad that the attention allowed him to go back to school, and it was awesome that he was able to help his family so much through the donations he received. What did you think when you read how William felt when he saw the internet for the first time? Or, when he flew in a plane for the first time? I was so glad he was able to have those experiences. Especially since he earned them through is hard work and ingenuity. When William was traveling, he got to go to a really cool library. Check out pictures of the library here--it seems like it's quite the place!

At the end of the book, William has his whole life ahead of him. He wants to create a water pump for the village, and he mentions how the village got solar panels. Check out William's website to read more about what he's up to now and to see how his windmill project has expanded. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this book along with us! If you liked this book and would like to read and watch similar titles, check out this list I created. Make sure to let me know if you check out anything on the list!

 I hope you'll join us again next month as we read Killing Floor by Lee Child. I can't wait to hear from you in the comments section!