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May 11, 2008

Erin added it

If there is one, just ONE thing that was monumentally historic in this book, a revealing glimpse into our culture's rich history and sociological mindset, it had nothing to do with rockets.

DID ANYONE ELSE NOTICE, THAT FIFTY YEARS AGO, PEOPLE WERE HOOKING UP IN BAND BUSES!?

Holy mother of french horns, it's ingrained in our history. I'm not talking to you, ex-cheerleaders belonging to the "'Twilight' fanclubs", you emo english lit majors arguing over poe. You c More...

2 comments like (12 people liked it)

Dec 14, 2011

Cass rated it:

This book was fabulous. It is the type of book I will be lending to everyone. It is mostly a true story (though the author admits to taking some license) about Homer Hickam, Jr. and his rocket building club. Hickam grew up in a mining town in which the only job choice was to become a miner. His mother wanted to ensure he got out of the town and encouraged him to build rockets as a means of proving to his father that he was smart enough to go to college.

This book inspired the movie Oc More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Nov 17, 2011

03kayleeh rated it:

If you love to read about someones life that is really boring, the person is lame and very selfish. There are tons of science related things(that the normal person doesn't care about) and it's story line needs to be flushed down the toilet. And it would have been slightly decent if there was romance. (I know that there was a little bit, but it was only four lines and no detail so I didn't count it.) So if you are some one who likes those kind of books then you are going to love "October Sky

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 08, 2009

Mark rated it:

Interesting that "October Sky" (the name of the movie) is an anagram of "Rocket Boys" (the name of the book - the original name anyway).

Although I was a teenager more than a decade later than Hickam was, some of the things he wrote about hit close to home. I, too, grew up in a rural area - on a dirt road in the woods of NH. I remember what it's like to lie in the dark in the middle of nowhere and watch for satellites. I and my circle of friends experimented pretty More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 03, 2011

Bucko rated it:

Homer Hickam recounts how he and his classmates, inspired by the launch of Sputnick, taught themselves (with a little help from some key adults) how to build rockets in the late 1950s. Hickam proves himself a more than capable storyteller, mixing equal parts nostalgia, humor, and teenage angst as he tells his story, including a warts-and-all look at his hometown and the coal company which gave it life. The result is a finely crafted tale of heartbreak and consternation, despair and, ultimately, More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 30, 2012

Paul rated it:

Rocket Boys is a heart-felt story written by Homer H.Hickham,Jr. that shows the true ambition and strength of boy who completes his Journey by putting his mind to it. Homer H.Hickham, better known as Sonny in the book, is a teenager who lives in Coalwood, Virgina. Sonny,as they call him has always been very intellegant from the start. He would always do more than what was asked of him and it is one of the reasons why he made it to where he wanted to go. Growing up Sonny lived with his parents Ho More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 29, 2012

Jonathan rated it:

Personally I though October Sky was a great book. The book goes through all of the emotions. Some of the emotions included were sympathy, happiness, and eagerness to get to next page. I’ll have to say. I almost put the book down in the beginning. After you get through the fifty pages or introduction, the book gets real good. I was actually surprised how good it got to be when I got to the “juicy” part of the book. It had a great ending. The ending was kind of a little sadder than I thought it wo More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 02, 2009

Alan rated it:

Loved it! The sequels are not as good as he milks the story for more and more books, but the original is fantastic. I've read this three or four times and bought the movie (October Sky). This is a great book about coming of age and relationships and meeting your goals and is great for all kids.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 07, 2010

Kirsty added it

A friend recommended this to me years back and although I was interested enough to chuck it in my shopping basket at Amazon a couple of years back it's taken me until now to get around to picking it up to read. This is the story (true) of Sonny Hickam and his friends known as the 'Rocket Boys' who, in the late 1950s, were inspired by the Sputnik satellites to build and launch their own rockets in a small coal mining town in West Virginia.

The moral that's often repeated throughout the book is

More...

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Mar 10, 2009

Zach rated it:

Rocket Boys
Homer H. Hickam Jr.
Genre: Autobiography
Theme: Follow Your Dreams

Sonny (Homer H. Hickam Jr.) is a boy growing up in a cole mining town. His father runs the cole mines and all life in the town of Coalwood revolves around the mining of coal. Sonny is expected by the family to grow up and work in the mines but all we wants to do is design and build rockets. Dr. von Braun's work with Sputnik inspires Sonny and his gang of friends to step outside their normal l More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 30, 2012

Ross rated it:

"Rocket Boys" by Homer H. Hickam was a very hard book to read at first. I had trouble reading it because it did not catch my attention. After about the 40th page or so I started to like it. It had a very easy writing style. The writing style was straight forward and very easy to understand. Even though I do not read a lot I found a book that I enjoyed.
The novels genre is a memoir. A memoir is a autobiography or a written account of one's memory of certain events or peop More...

1 comment like

Oct 27, 2011

07maddiek. rated it:

October Sky
Written by: Homer Hickam
The Rocket Boys must have launched over 40 rockets to finally get one to fly successfully. These rocket models ranged from, the first one being made out of an empty flashlight tube with cherry bomb powder in it, to their last one made out of steel and S.A.E. bar stock. Over and over they tried until they found success.
Homer Hickam, the main character of this story is th More...

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Oct 26, 2011

07alexw rated it:

October sky book review
well it was published in 1998
The author of it is Homer Hickam (as from the book)
It has 428 pages
well I think that anyone would love to read this book it is kind of boring though I probably wouldn’t read it again but if you like science more than me than you will probably like this book. Now Some of the characters in this story are homer(the author), roy lee, miss Riley, Sherman, And more.
Now the story starts in 1957 at Coal wood, West Virginia More...

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Oct 26, 2011

01celestes rated it:

Don’t you hate those boring books that teachers always assign you to read for projects? I sure do. That was my first reaction was I was assigned to read Rocket Boys. But to my surprise, it was actually quite interesting. It contains 428 pages and is a true story written by none other than, Homer Hickam. The book takes place around 1957 in a small town called coalwood.
Science, the subject many students dislike. Well, not in this case. Science is what changed Homer Hickam’s life for the b More...

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Oct 25, 2011

03dallinc rated it:

Rocket Boys or October Sky was a book I enjoyed alot. At frist I did not want to read it and even if I did read it I wanted to read it because I wanted to not because it was assinged to me by my science teacher. I was not sure what to think of it but I read it anyway and was glad to find it was about rockets hence the name. And about the space race it is Homer Hickam's life story when JFK was the presidnet and before that. It is his life in coalwood before graduting high school.

Coalw More...

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Oct 24, 2011

04nicole rated it:

I havd read October sky and I though it was O.K. I had a hard to get into it because I didn't understand what is going on sometimes. It was really hard to understand who is doing what in the book. But I like the characters because sometimes they are funny.

In the book the main character is a boy name Hickam H. Homer Jr. But his friends and family call him Sonny. Sonny lives in a town call Coalwood. A mining town. Sonny is in high school when he found out that rockets. So, Sonny and More...

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Oct 24, 2011

03aspenw rated it:

Excitement filled me when I read the summary of this book. The pages clean of any marks, and the book as any other book wanting to be read. I read the first 36 pages, and it took me an hour. Over the years I have understood that the beginning of every book isn't supposed to be as exciting as the end. I was determined to finish it. It took me two weeks. Those two weeks were honestly the longest of my life. I find "Rocket Boys" to be a great piece of literature. Everything was explained More...

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Oct 06, 2011

08aubric rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Aug 20, 2011

Benjaminxjackson rated it:

I grabbed Rocket Boys because the library was promoting it as part of a one-book program where lots of people read the same book and attend events or discuss it.

I liked the book, and it made for a good plane read. It was a description of how some kids in coal-country West Virginia build rockets from scratch with the help of the mine's machine shop and some assistance from helpful teachers and mining engineers.

The book inspired the film 'October Sky', and that is where m More...

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Aug 20, 2011

Charity rated it:

This is one of my favorite movies, and for a long time I've wanted to read the book. I've looked for it saveral times in the library,and never found it. Finally, Rick decided to just buy it off of Amazon. So,finally I read it. I should warn that there is some material in the book that I wish was not in it. Dallin started reading it first, also very excited about it, but never finished it because of the sexual content. I did read it.
So, other than that,this is WAY better than the movie, More...

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Feb 05, 2011

MaryBookSwarm rated it:

Personally, I thought OCTOBER SKY was a great book. The book takes the reader through all of the emotions. Some of the emotions included were sympathy with what Homer and his friends went through, happiness with their successes, and eagerness to get to next page.

I have to say, I almost put the book down in the beginning. After I got through the first fifty pages (the introduction), the book gets really good. I was actually surprised how good it got to be when I got to the “juicy” par More...

0 comments like

Aug 26, 2010

Jon rated it:

I only have one real complaint with this book. Rocket Boys is ostensibly a work of non-fiction, but the author's note refers to an "author's license" and "certain liberties in the telling of the story." I think this note under-states the extent to which the story has clearly been fictionalized. The too-good-to-be-true coincidences of timing eventually made me realize that the details of this story are not to be taken literally.

Otherwise, however, this is a wonderf More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Oct 26, 2011

03JoshA rated it:

October Sky, or Rocket Boys, is by Homer Hickam. It is a memoir, which is kind of like an autobiography with only part of their life. When Homer Hickam was a kid, he lived in Coalwood, West Virginia, and everyone called him Sonny. The story he writes about starts in 1957, but continues for several years of his life.
Coalwood is a mining town, and everything in it belongs to the mine. The kids grow up to work in the mine, and the only ones to get out are the ones that leave for colle More...

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Oct 27, 2011

06RickieH rated it:

To tell you the truth it was okay, one of the reasons why I thought it was going to be a boring book was first of all we were made to do it, and that was one of the reasons why I did not want to read it, and another thing was that it was a term project and then I thought to myself that it might be okay because it was about building rockets and I kinda thought it would be a good book also because learning about rockets is kinda interesting to me so I might like this book.
What this book is a More...

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Oct 26, 2011

04dustinc rated it:

Rockets streaming by as you duck for cover behind the block house. The fuel has finally worked. Our rocket fly to the sky, as if they are trying to flee...

In this book Homer Hickam, a.k.a. Sonny, hears of the Russian satillite, Spudnick, and instantly falls in love with rockets. He talks his friends, Roy Lee, O'Dell, Sherman, Quentin, into building rockets with him. Sonny, after trying with a fire cracker, finds several different fuels. These fuels include black powder, rocket candy, More...

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Nov 13, 2008

Betsy rated it:

This was a tough one. The writing flows extremely well, and for most of the book, I was enjoying the exploits of a geeky, courageous high schooler. However, as his high school years draw to a close, it was too close to the bone in several ways. Also, in thinking back over the story, I'm not sure that he was entirely fair to several of his family/friends despite the hard times that undoubtedly occurred. It's his story, true, but his filter seems turned up pretty high.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 28, 2007

Kim rated it:

I just finished reading this wonderful memoir of six boys growing up in a dead-end coal-mining town in West Virginia. The writing is lyrical and wholesome, yet quietly incisive, similar to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Hickam interweaves several stories with incredible skill, evoking the dreams and sorrows of teenage boys, recalling the nascent years of the space race, describing the hardships of living in southern West Virginia when coal was king. I highly recommend it.

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 25, 2011

04davisw rated it:

Remember the time when we saw something somewhere wether it be in the sky or in a movie or anywhere else and we said to our selves that is exactly what it want to do or to be that exact thing. I once read a story that a kid did just that. He saw a news article on his television and told himself that is what I'm going to do and be.

The story of Rocket Boys is a interesting story as you see a group of kids from a small mining town called Coalville, Virginia. I liked this book book becau More...

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May 27, 2009

itpdx rated it:

This is a gem. After the Soviet launch of Sputnik, Hickam and his buddies decide to build their own rockets. With Mark Twain-like humor, he writes about the troubles they get into and the subtle and the overt community support as these local kids reach for space. He also describes adolescent experiences with love, sex, booze, trying to make sense of the world and figuring out their places. Hickam's mother is pushing for a way for him to escape the dying town and the dangers of the mine while More...

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Oct 27, 2011

03evang rated it:

3.. 2.. 1.. Launch off Homer Hickam is a small boy with a huge dream. He wants to join N.A.S.A. and build some rockets with the best. He obtained his dream by watching a satellite streak across the sky. There is only one problem to his dream, and that is where he lives. He lives in a small place called Coalwood. This town is a mining town. Everybody that lives there works in the mine. Holmer Hickam goes through many trials.
During this book Holmer sets out to start building some of his More...

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