William lived with his parents and six sisters in the village of Wimbe located in Malawi. His family struggled with famine and poor crops. William's father could not afford to send him to school. But William had a dream. A dream that started by picking up a library book and realizing he could use the wind for power. His experiments with wind were not without problem, but finally he was able to build a windmill that could power a light bulb. I love a great true story, and this is one of them. The Young Adult version that I read was easy to read and told a compelling story of a boy who overcomes odds to help his family and his village. I love William's humor and his scientific mind. He never lets anything keep him down and is willing to try new things until he finds a solution. I highly recommend William's TED Talks to learn more about his story along with the movie, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, to learn more about his story. Granted I watched the movie first, and I was a little disappointed that more about his sister (or actually six sisters) was not in the book. However, the book adds a lot to your understanding of how he was able to develop the windmill.
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Sungju Lee was a child of privilege in North Korea, ready to serve Kim Il-Sung. Then life changed at the age of eleven when his family is sent away from the capital of Pyongyang. Sungju realizes that people are starving outside the capital in the 1990s North Korean famine. He learns how to survive by forming a gang with a group of boys who soon become the only family he has. This is not an easy story to read. Knowing that is all true (with the exception of names) is hard to consider. These boys are left orphans as their parents go to find food. The lengths which they go to find food makes you want to cry. He survives to write this story, but it is not easy. It makes me realize again how much we take for granted. As I picked up Prisoner B-3087, Mr. Peek recommended another book, a memoir by his wife. She was also a Holocaust survivor. Ruth also survived the Nazi invasion in her home country, Poland, but she did so through hiding. She and her family had to hide in tight spaces to keep out of sight, even hiding in a chest or trunk while someone came to visit the family she was staying with. Though Ruth's story was not as hard to read as Jack's, Ruth also struggled to survive as a young girl, not understanding why she had to stay hidden. The late night conversations her parents had with those they stayed with are particularly heartbreaking. She did not endure as much physical suffering as her future husband, but she still had her own trial to bear. Her story reminds me of Diary of Anne Frank, but you can be assured that she survived, the title itself gives you that hope when her story seems hopeless. She tells her story more straightforward than the novel based on Jack's life. You can see the difference in this memoir as you see the truth that was her life during and right after the war. |
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June 2021
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