Rocket Boys (The Coalwood Series #1) (original 1998; edition 2000)

Excellent read. I saw the movie when it came out, but never got around to reading the book. Hickam is an EXCELLENT storyteller. I don't think I have laughed so hard while reading non-fiction ever. I kept cheering the boys on even knowing the general story. ( )

What an amazing story. This is autobiographical and done by an excellent writer. Homer Hadley Hickam, Jr. (nicknamed Sonny) was 15 when the Russians launched Sputnik and it inspired him to his lifes work, working with NASA. This story covers only three years, from the age of 15 and Sputnik to 18 and graduation from High School. Those three years follow Homer and his small group of friends who decide they need to build a rocket. Sonny is the de facto leader, Quinten is the "brains" and the other boys the cheering section, gophers and general support staff. Their first "rocket" sits on the ground and fizzles at them but not to be discouraged they keep working until they achieve flight. After that its a matter of making things better and better.

The best part of this story is not the building of the rockets but the family and community relations that go on around the rocket building. Sonny has strained relations with his father and his older brother and a strong relationship with his mother. It is during this three year period that he realizes that his parents are locked in a battle about what will happen with him, will he stay in West Virginia, following his father into the coal mines, or will he break free and go to college to become an engineer? His father is mine supervisor which adds to the tensions in town because Dad is a "company" man while most of the town is Union. Much of the conflict of the story is between townspeople and the Hickam family's perceived protection of the company - at the expense of the mine workers and their families.

I highly recommend this book and can't wait to get the next three parts of Sonny's story, all written with his deft hand, I hope.

One other note, this book was made into a movie, so if you've ever seen October Sky (an anangram of Rocket Boys), you already know part of the story. ( )

"The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled." - Plutarch

That could act as a summary to the book. At fourteen-years-old Homer Hickam was an average student with no real ambition in a dying town--and then in 1957 Sputnick swept over the October skies of West Virginia. It inspired him and his friends to start a rocket club, and in learning how to put those rockets in the air he learned physics, chemistry--and even taught himself calculus. But this is about more than rocket science--it's a love letter to his hometown: Coalwood. A company town--a coal mining town that sucked the life out of its inhabitants. But without the folk of that town, there's no way the "rocket boys" would have launched those rockets--and their dreams. Hickam dedicated the book not just to his parents but the town of Coalwood--and by the end I certainly understood why.

I'm a space nut...er... enthusiast. So I admit this story might have a special resonance for me. On the other hand, a book rarely moves me to tears--and this one did. It's a memoir that reads like a novel--a page-turning, uplifting novel. There was a film based on this book. I've seen it and it's a good film. But this was a great book. ( )

This book was a real page-turner for me and the adventures of the Rocket Boys show a great deal about the way science should be done. There are also numerous details about life in the coal mining towns of West Virginia during the late fifties and into the sixties. Recommended.

"To get out of here, you've got to show your dad you're smarter than he thinks. I believe you can build a rocket. He doesn't. I want you to show him I'm right and he's wrong. Is that too much to ask?"

I am a big fan of the movie, October Sky and looked forward to reading the book the movie is based on. As much as I was looking forward to reading Rocket Boys I wasn’t expecting it to be the great read that it turned out to be. I was a captive audience from the first paragraph. Written with a refreshing honesty, Homer Hickam Jr. writes his memoirs of his Rocket Boy days in the tiny coal mining town of Coalwood, West Virginia (population 2,000) with an amazing amount of charm and wit that made this one of those rare books that is hard to put down. Rocket Boys is the the true story of a few native sons who decide, against all odds, to do the impossible: excel in the world of science by teaching themselves how to build rockets.

Space captures the imagination of young Homer who witnesses the Russian satellite Sputnik from his back yard one starry October night in 1957. Homer suddenly starts envisioning himself as someone who helps build the U.S. rockets that will successfully go into space. His hero becomes German rocket scientist Dr. Wernher von Braun who comes to America to help in the U.S. space program. Homer’s ultimate goal is to work on Dr. Braun’s team at the newly formed NASA. Sophomore Homer wants to start building rockets but he has no idea how. He finds a way, though, by recruiting one of the smartest kids he knows at Big Creek High School and enlisting his friends in his endeavor. Thus the Rocket Boys and the Big Creek Missile Agency (BCMA) is born. The boys spend weekends together learning everything they need to know to get their rockets to fly and gathering the necessary funds it will take to keep their rockets built, fueled, and ready to launch. With the support of their families, each other, the townspeople and a pretty young science teacher who has unwavering faith in them, the Rocket Boys, slowly but surely, enjoy success and fame in their little town. The Rocket Boys’ rockets become quite literally the launching pad out of the dead-end town of Coalwood and into a better future.

Complete with sibling rivalry, unrequited love, a son desperately looking for his father’s approval, and a small group of boys who dare to dream bigger than their background dictates they should, Rocket Boys is a quintessential American coming of age story. A great story wonderfully written and told. In a word: "Prodigious!" ( )