Rocket Boys (The Coalwood Series #1)
by Homer Hickam
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Book Summary Information
Author: Homer HickamEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2000-01-11
ISBN: 0385333218
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Delta
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780385333214
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Book Reviews of Rocket Boys (The Coalwood Series #1)
Book Review: Must Read
Summary: 5 Stars
If you are someone who struggles with reading due to a learning disability then you probably struggle to read. I know I do. Well, this book goes down like a cold glass of water on a hot day. You can't stop. Mr. Hickam is an immensely talented author. This is a worthwhile read for almost any age. I read it when I was 33 and loved it. Books like this are rare do yourself a favor and read it. Very few books make time disappear and this is one of them. As a word of caution, The Coalwood Way, the sequel to October Sky/Rocket Boys, is not half as good as this one.
Summary of Rocket Boys (The Coalwood Series #1)
The #1 New York Times bestselling memoir that inspired the film October Sky, Rocket Boys is a uniquely American memoir--a powerful, luminous story of coming of age at the dawn of the 1960s, of a mother's love and a father's fears, of a group of young men who dreamed of launching rockets into outer space . . . and who made those dreams come true.With the grace of a natural storyteller, NASA engineer Homer Hickam paints a warm, vivid portrait of the harsh West Virginia mining town of his youth, evoking a time of innocence and promise, when anything was possible, even in a company town that swallowed its men alive. A story of romance and loss, of growing up and getting out, Homer Hickam's lush, lyrical memoir is a chronicle of triumph--at once exquisitely written and marvelously entertaining.
Now with 8 pages of photographs.
Inspired by Werner von Braun and his Cape Canaveral team, 14-year-old Homer Hickam decided in 1957 to build his own rockets. They were his ticket out of Coalwood, West Virginia, a mining town that everyone knew was dying--everyone except Sonny's father, the mine superintendent and a company man so dedicated that his family rarely saw him. Hickam's smart, iconoclastic mother wanted her son to become something more than a miner and, along with a female science teacher, encouraged the efforts of his grandiosely named Big Creek Missile Agency. He grew up to be a NASA engineer and his memoir of the bumpy ride toward a gold medal at the National Science Fair in 1960--an unprecedented honor for a miner's kid--is rich in humor as well as warm sentiment. Hickam vividly evokes a world of close communal ties in which a storekeeper who sold him saltpeter warned, "Listen, rocket boy. This stuff can blow you to kingdom come." Hickam is candid about the deep disagreements and tensions in his parents' marriage, even as he movingly depicts their quiet loyalty to each other. The portrait of his ultimately successful campaign to win his aloof father's respect is equally affecting. --Wendy Smith
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