Free (Kindle/Kobo UK) Boy Who Harnessed the Wind [African Science Invention Memoir]

[ATDrake]

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba (Wikipedia) and Bryan Mealer is the Malawi-born inventor's (secular) inspirational memoir of his creation of an improvised windmill to provide affordable electricity in his impoverished native country, and his further drive to spread attainable windpower throughout the continent, free courtesy of publisher HarperCollins' HarperTrue imprint.

Here's an old BBC News video interview with him, and a further description of his background and TED talk at The Guardian, if you're interested.

This unexpectedly expired earlier this month just as I was going to post it as a featured freebie, so I'm very happy to see it pop up again so soon, because it's actually quite interesting and on some of my favourite topics, too. It's really wonderful to get a science-oriented freebie like this and I'm glad I can share it with you*.

Currently free @ Amazon UK, & Kobo (most likely only available to the UK), and if the previous pattern of HC UK freebie-ization holds, should be free again in another day or two @ B&N UK.

Unlikely to go free in other countries, as previous UK freebies from this HarperCollins imprint have not. And this only lasted a couple of days last time unlike the week we often get for HC UK freebies, so if you want it, grab it now.

And this has been the selected 3rd (non-repeat, kind of) free ebook thread of the day.

(Which I finally got to post because it did actually repeat, but we're not going to count that since I didn't get to post it last time.)

Enjoy!

Description
When William Kamkwamba was just 14 years old, his family told him that he must leave school and come home to work on the farm – they could no longer afford his fees. This is his story of how he found a way to make a difference, how he brought light to his family and village, and hope to his nation.

Malawi is a country battling AIDS, drought and famine, and in 2002, a season of floods followed by the most severe famine in fifty years brought it to its knees. William Kamkwamba's family were farmers, and relied on their maize crop to feed them for the year and bring in money by selling the surplus. But after many lean years, finally there was no more. By Christmas 2001 they were running out of food - with months before they could harvest their crop again.

At 14 years old, William had been forced to leave school as there was no money to pay the fees. Borrowing library books to continue his education, William picked up a book in English about energy, with a picture of a wind turbine on the front cover. Fascinated by science and electricity, William decided to build his own. Ridiculed by those around him, exhausted from his work in the fields every day, slowly he built it with scrap metal, old bicycle parts and wood from the blue gum tree.

It has changed the world in which William and his family live. Only 2% of Malawi has electricity; and the windmill now powers lightbulbs and a radio at their compound, and he has built more windmills for his school and village.

When news of William's invention spread, people from across the globe offered to help him. Soon he was re-enrolled in school and travelling to America to visit wind farms. This is his story - his attempts to teach other Africans to help themselves, one windmill, one lightbulb, at a time.

* Well, those of you who have UK accounts or can fake it, that is. But you all know how to fake it by now, right?

[ATDrake]

Now newly free @ iTunes UK and also dropped to free @ B&N UK as anticipated in OP.