We invited Erin Levin, the Community Manager at Better World Books and filmmaker for the African Children’s Choir to share her favorite book picks.

What is the value of a book? While an actual book might cost you $3.48, what that book brings the world is priceless. It is a beautiful grin full of gratitude and grace. It is the chance to learn math and become a green city engineer in India. It is the opportunity to discover different cultures and cultivate an open mind and heart. It is a place to put your thoughts and songs and stories.

The perfect example of this priceless paper is shared in a book called The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. In the non-fiction story, William Kamkwamba, a Malawian boy in extreme poverty who cannot even attend school, finds a book about windmills in the charity-donated library in his village. William uses scrap metal, tractor parts, and bicycle halves to build his very own windmill, which eventually brings power to energize a water pump that that resolves a number of problems faced by his village. In this case, one single book was able to light and heal and entire village in Africa.

If you are inspired by William Kamkwamba as I am, here are a few other books about social impact that you might love. Enjoy a 10% off 2+ used books discount code from BWB while you’re at it: BOOKS4GOOD.

Half the Sky - From Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, a book showing hope through women around the developing world.

Plastiki - The adventure of a sixty-foot catamaran that floats on 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles. A five-person crew sailed 10,000 miles from the US to Australia, risking their lives to call attention to our fragile oceans.

The Blue Sweater - An inspiring story and personal journey of leaving international banking for international development and creating a whole new form of investment - patient capital - along the way.

Work Hard. Be Nice - These two young men went from serving as Teach for America Volunteers to developing the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) which includes over 60 schools across the US.

Leaving Microsoft to Change the World - John Wood’s soul-searching trip from leading Microsoft to building the education non-profit Room to Read.

Milkshake and Better World Books would love to hear from you. Share your favorite impactful book on our facebook and twitter pages... now through August 15th, for every new like and follow, BWB is giving a book to a child in need!