Popular Book Was Freshman Summer Reading Assignment
Author Bryan Mealer will be no stranger to more than 300 students at Wilmington College when he visits campus as part of the 2016-17 Issues & Artists Series Sept. 12, at 7:30 p.m., in Hugh G. Heiland Theatre.
The event is free of charge and open to the public.
He is co-author of the acclaimed book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, which was the summer reading assignment for new freshmen. They discussed, as part of the New Student Orientation program, the story centered upon when a catastrophic drought struck William Kamkwamba's tiny village in the east African nation of Malawi.
Mealer told Kamkwamba's compelling story about making a windmill from scrap metal that saved his family — bringing electricity to his home and pumping water to their drought-stricken farm. The memoir shows how, even in a desperate situation, one boy's brilliant idea can light up the world.
Mealer’s other books include Muck City: Winning and Losing in Football's Forgotten Town, which is about a haunted quarterback, a returning hero and a scholar struggling against terrible odds, and All Things Must Fight to Live: Stories of War and Deliverance in Congo. The latter is a foreign correspondent’s gripping account of his experiences in Congo, told through the long scope of the country’s dark and brutal history.