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Check back in March 2020 for Washington County READ's next book selection!
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2019 Washington County READ Showcases a Young Boy's Ingenuity
How does a fourteen year-old boy use a nail, corncob, bicycle chain, and PVC pipe to bring electricity and water to his village in Malawi? The Boy who Harnessed the Wind, Lifetime Learning's 2019 Washington County READ, is the true story of William Kamkwamba. After a drought and famine caused widespread starvation, William's family had no money to send him to high school. Though speaking or reading little English, William taught himself science and English at his village's one room library with castoff books from the United States. Using textbooks and junkyard trash, he learned how to build a windmill to power lights, cell phones, and a well for his fellow villagers. Discovered by the rest of the world after a TED talk appearance, William, with co-author Bryan Mealer, wrote his memoir, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, in 2009. It became a New York Times best seller and spawned both a documentary and fictionalized movie of his achievement. He pursued a degree in Environmental Studies from Dartmouth University, graduating in 2014. He was named by Time Magazine as one of 2013's 30 People under 30 Changing the World. William continued to change the world for Malawi through the Moving Windmills Project he co-founded. |
Friday, Oct 25, 2019
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Bryan Mealer
Bryan Mealer, co-author of this year’s Washington County READ, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, first learned of William Kamkwamba in a Wall Street Journal article reporting on William’s TED talk in Tanzania. For three years prior, Bryan had been an AP news reporter assigned to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He returned to the United States burnt out and depressed. Trying to make sense of his experiences, he published All Things Fight to Live in 2008, an account of the Congolese war and deliverance.
Though his psyche had taken a beating, Bryan was drawn to a meet-up of prospective authors for the intriguing William Kamkwamba. On that cold New York afternoon, with William mesmerized by his first snow and shivering in shirtsleeves from Malawi’s summer weather, Bryan’s feelings would be transformed. “I was very disillusioned about covering the continent anymore because I felt that all I’d managed to do was cover death and pestilence and confirm existing damaging stereotypes. When I met William Kamkwamba, all of that changed. He embodied the true spirit of Africa, the resourcefulness, the resilience, the vitality. I love this story and still do, I feel like it’s a universal tale of fortitude and dreams and what happens when those things come together.”
In 2009, Bryan and William published The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. With their shared passion for inspiring young people, Bryan and William published a picture book edition, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon, in 2012 and a Young Readers edition in 2015.
Bryan grew up in west Texas and San Antonio and earned a Journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin. His latest book The Kings of Big Spring: God, Oil, and One Family’s Search for the American Dream (2018) chronicles his ancestors in west Texas. His writing has appeared in many publications, including Texas Monthly, Esquire, Harper’s, the New York Times, and the Guardian. He recently moved from Austin to New York to attend Seminary. He is married and has three children.
Though his psyche had taken a beating, Bryan was drawn to a meet-up of prospective authors for the intriguing William Kamkwamba. On that cold New York afternoon, with William mesmerized by his first snow and shivering in shirtsleeves from Malawi’s summer weather, Bryan’s feelings would be transformed. “I was very disillusioned about covering the continent anymore because I felt that all I’d managed to do was cover death and pestilence and confirm existing damaging stereotypes. When I met William Kamkwamba, all of that changed. He embodied the true spirit of Africa, the resourcefulness, the resilience, the vitality. I love this story and still do, I feel like it’s a universal tale of fortitude and dreams and what happens when those things come together.”
In 2009, Bryan and William published The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. With their shared passion for inspiring young people, Bryan and William published a picture book edition, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon, in 2012 and a Young Readers edition in 2015.
Bryan grew up in west Texas and San Antonio and earned a Journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin. His latest book The Kings of Big Spring: God, Oil, and One Family’s Search for the American Dream (2018) chronicles his ancestors in west Texas. His writing has appeared in many publications, including Texas Monthly, Esquire, Harper’s, the New York Times, and the Guardian. He recently moved from Austin to New York to attend Seminary. He is married and has three children.
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Previous Community Reads:
2019: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer 2018: The Train to Crystal City by Jan Jarboe Russell 2017: News of the World by Paulette Jiles 2016: City of Refuge by Tom Piazza 2015: My Boys and Girls Are in There by Ron Rozelle 2014: One Amazing Thing by Chitra Divakaruni 2013: The Personal History of Rachel Dupree by Ann Weisgarber 2012: The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton 2011: One Ranger: A Memoir by H. Joaquin Jackson and David Marion Wilkinson 2010: Twelve Mighty Orphans by Jim Dent 2009: Final Salute by Jim Sheeler |