Electric Dreams: One Unlikely Team of Kids and the Race to Build the Car of the Future | 
 enlarge | Author: Caroline Kettlewell
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy New: $2.00
You Save: $22.00 (92%)
New (9) from $2.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 240729
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.3 x 1
ISBN: 0786712716
Dewey Decimal Number: 629.2293
EAN: 9780786712717
ASIN: 0786712716
Publication Date: March 15, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new condition
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Product Description
When Berkeley graduate Eric Ryan was sent by Teach for America to a hardscrabble high school in the heart of North Carolina's NASCAR country, he didn't count on Harold Miller — a big guy with a big laugh and a tarheel accent as thick as sorghum syrup — sticking his head into his class one morning and announcing, "Hey Mr. Ryan, we're gonna build an electric car." Two regional utilities had challenged a group of elite schools throughout the South to design and build battery-powered electric vehicles to be judged during a final contest at NASCAR's Richmond International Raceway. Although Ryan's underprivileged high school was not on the list, Miller managed to squeak them in. With a Ford Escort rescued from the compacter, a few hundred pounds of scavenged golf cart batteries, a local minor league NASCAR driver as coach, and the local constabulary looking the other way as the reborn "Shocker" began careening over back roads on test runs, the kids get their pasted-together dark horse to the big contest in Richmond. Electric Dreams offers drama built on marvelous small-town characters, and a story of never-say-die invention which would make North Carolina's other pioneers, the Wright Brothers, proud.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 This is an interesting feel-good read March 1, 2008
This book is everything everyone says it is when it comes to a warm, feel-good read. More than half the book is dedicated to the situation of the school in rural North Carolina and the experiences of a teacher who went there from California to get a different experience. The main characters in the book are a couple of teachers and community leaders, and not necessarily the kids who built the car. The real story of the electric car doesn't get started until about halfway through the book. While I would have been interested in a few more details about the project, the book is still a good read. It skips large sections of the actual project. You seem to go from the initial planning stages to the competition without knowing if the kids painted the car, but that's a minor drawback. By the time the competition starts, it seems like there are only a few pages left, but that's probably the most powerful part of the book. The "disadvantaged" kids manage to win the competition in an emotional and unexpected surprise performance by their car. It appears as though the victory was partially due to painstaking planning and the good luck of having chosen better drivers who knew how to get the most out of the car. Finally, I would have liked a little more closure. There is a section at the end that quickly wraps up what happened later, and while it gives the basic details, it leaves you wanting to know just a little more. Still, in spite of all the drawbacks, this is a very good book, and if you are interested in electric vehicles, it's a different take on the topic.
Awesome Book March 8, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was a wonderful book. She portrayed Miller & Ryan perfectly. I had the wonderful opportunity of being a member of the NEAT the year after the events in her book took place. She captured every detail perfectly and I was able to relive a wonderful part of my life. Once you pick up this book you will not be able to put it down until you have read the last page!!
An Awsome Read October 13, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As a member of the EV team at Northamton-East, Caroline Kettlewell made me feel the whole adventure all over again. It was like she took what I saw and felt and put words to it. I am so glad someone told this story, that other people get to read our stugale to the top. If you like to cheer for the underdog you need to read this book. Bryan T Ferguson "the man who drove to the record"
What a wonderful story! August 22, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was sent the book by family - maybe because of the NASCAR connection. I started it on a plane trip to the east coast and finished it, with tears in my eyes, on the way home 2 days later. You start pulling for the kids in the story from the start and share all the ups and downs as they meet each challenge that faces them. What we need is more teachers like Eric Ryan! I highly recommend the book for anyone who likes pulling for the underdog.
Synchromesh: Perfect match-up of story and writer June 9, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
How can a story about electric cars bring tears to your eyes, even when you're reading it for the sixth time? Not only is the story riveting, but the writing is a pleasure. As in the works of Tracy Kidder and John McPhee, some authors and stories are made for each other. But neither of those Pulitzer Prize winners ever made me cry. This is a book to be read multiple times - for the inspiration, for the use of words, for the drama, for the joy.
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