“The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer is an inspiring children’s book. It’s about a boy in Africa who needs to find a way to get water to his village. Because he’s so inventive, he learns how to make a windmill. The first connection I can make to this book is a “text-to-self” connection. Like the boy in the book, I like to think of myself as an inventive person. I, like the book, often wonder how things are put together and how they work. The second connection I can make is a “text-to-world” connection. This boy from the story doesn’t live in the only village in Africa that has been starving. This is a true story, and it doesn’t only apply to Africa. There are places in Ecuador, Columbia, and some other countries that are put in the boy’s village’s situation, rainless. It’s sad how because not everyone believes in children and their abilities, not every village has as a bright a boy as the village in the book does. The last connection I can make is a “text-to-text” connection. There was a book I once read called “The Kite Runner”. The boy from the Kite Runner was rich and lived in afghanistan, but he was just as bright as the boy in “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind”. The boy from The Kite Runner didn’t invent something that saved his city, but he did what he could, like the other boy, to help his community. I found “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” to be a lovely book and enjoyed reading. Therefore, I give it 5 stars.

“Wanted: The Perfect Pet” is a sweet children’s book written and illustrated by Fiona Roberton. It’s about a boy named Henry who wanted a dog. A duck saw the ad Henry had put out for a dog on the newspaper, and decided that he would dress up as a dog because he felt lonely. Henry was at first very excited, but the duck’s disguise fell off and Henry realized that the dog was a duck. However, Henry ended up keeping the duck even though he had originally wanted a dog because the duck still had many cool things about it. The first connection I can make to this story is a “text-to-self” connection. I remember feeling the way Henry did about a dog. I remember all I ever wanting to be a dog for about 7 years, until I reached grade 5. That’s when I finally got the perfect pet, except my perfect pet was a real dog, not a disguised duck. The second connection I can make is a “text-to-text” connection. I forgot the name of the book, but I remember reading a picture book about a duck who wanted a dog. Of course, the difference between the two books is that in “Wanted: The Perfect Pet” the duck is trying to be the dog rather thank wanting a dog as a pet, but both stories involve a duck and the topic of dogs, so they’re connected.  The last connection I can make is a “text-to-world” connection. The duck in the story is alone. Ducks all around the world are dying because of oil spills. The duck being alone in the story may be because most of the ducks in his world are extinct. The connection is that it’s possible that the duck from the story’s world is the duck-related future of our world, which is sad to think, but possibly true. Overall, this was a cute book and sort of funny, so I would think it deserves 4 stars.