Rocket Boys
by Homer H. Hickam Jr.
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Read in December, 2007
“What is American about American literature?” This was a recurring question in one of my favorite undergraduate classes. There is no one right answer of course, and my perspective today is certainly different from what it was when I last answered it, but as I read Hickam’s Rocket Boys, I kept coming back to that question and the larger answers, contemplating the characteristics that qualify American literature, as this book is certainly a fine example; Hickam’s memoir is a truly America...more
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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 couldn't understa...more
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 couldn't understa...more
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Title: October Sky
Author: Homer H. Hickam Jr.
Publisher: Rocket Boys
# of pages- 421
Year 1999
Genre: Non fiction
Interest Level: ages 11 and up
Potential Hot Lava: alcohol references
General Response:
Well written book that any young adult with hopes and dreams could be drawn to and take away a positive outlook
Subject, Themes, and Big Ideas:
Science, peer pressure, perseverance
Characters:
Homer Hickam Jr., Jimmy O'Dell, Sherman Siers, Jim Hickam, Roy Lee Cooke, Quentin Wi...more
Author: Homer H. Hickam Jr.
Publisher: Rocket Boys
# of pages- 421
Year 1999
Genre: Non fiction
Interest Level: ages 11 and up
Potential Hot Lava: alcohol references
General Response:
Well written book that any young adult with hopes and dreams could be drawn to and take away a positive outlook
Subject, Themes, and Big Ideas:
Science, peer pressure, perseverance
Characters:
Homer Hickam Jr., Jimmy O'Dell, Sherman Siers, Jim Hickam, Roy Lee Cooke, Quentin Wi...more
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Read in May, 2008
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"...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommended to Gwen by:
Liahnirecommends it for: Rocket Boys and Girls
I really wanted to like this book. It came highly recommended to me and it covers a topic in American history that I love - the space race. (I went to the Kennedy Space Center for my birthday last year!) I had seen the movie October Sky and was told the the book of course would give a much more balanced view of the people in Homer Hickam, Jr.'s life. I found that to be totally untrue.
First of all, I loved the story. It's engaging and it builds off of the Rocket Boys' drive to do something wi...more
First of all, I loved the story. It's engaging and it builds off of the Rocket Boys' drive to do something wi...more
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Read in May, 2008
As so many others have said in the past, the memoirs of Homer Hickam are enjoyable at different levels. The rocket science here is interesting, but really serves mainly as the narrative driver of this account of coming of age. As someone who grew up on the edges of Appalachia (raised in York, PA and undergraduate college in Pittsburgh, PA) the social environment and personality types that Homer encounters in his hometown of Coalwood and in Big Creek High School were familiar to me. I think this ...more
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Read in January, 2008
Good book. I learned that determination overcomes many obstacles. The author and his friends build and launch rockets despite lacking the education, experience, or materials with which to build them. The main character, Homer Jr., grows up in a coal mining town in WV at the beginning of the space race. His father, the mine superintendent, does not support his ambitions to build rockets because he wants him to work at the mine. He is overshadowed by an older brother who is also a football hero. H...more
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Everyone in Coal Wood is more interested in what is below the earth than what is above it. If you like a book that takes some high school kids in a one horse town and have them do some thing amazing with their lives you will enjoy this book.
reaching five miles and higher in the air, homer hickam Jr and his friends, were building rockets. However, there were some people holding theme back. Homer Jr's father, who was only interested in minning, diccouraged Homer Jr and his friends the most. ...more
reaching five miles and higher in the air, homer hickam Jr and his friends, were building rockets. However, there were some people holding theme back. Homer Jr's father, who was only interested in minning, diccouraged Homer Jr and his friends the most. ...more
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1 comments
The story of a boy growing up in a coal mine town where there isn't too many opportunities and after high school it was pretty much working at the mines, but our main character
Homer Hickam didn't want to end up in the mines like the other and die from clogged lungs. He has interest in building rockets and he gets into building them, he is joined by 3 other friends and they enter the science fair hoping to win the scholarship prize so he can go to college and make something more out of his life....more
Homer Hickam didn't want to end up in the mines like the other and die from clogged lungs. He has interest in building rockets and he gets into building them, he is joined by 3 other friends and they enter the science fair hoping to win the scholarship prize so he can go to college and make something more out of his life....more
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Supurb! Homer really knows how to tell a good story and relate to the common man. He's a "good ol' Coalwood" boy who grew up and now works for NASA, but doesn't forget his roots and how he got to where he is.
I first was introduced to Homer through the movie "October Sky." In 2007, NASA and the world celebrated the launching of Sputnik in October with a get together in Coalwood, West Virginia. Homer was there, and he was very personable, getting out of the car before...more
I first was introduced to Homer through the movie "October Sky." In 2007, NASA and the world celebrated the launching of Sputnik in October with a get together in Coalwood, West Virginia. Homer was there, and he was very personable, getting out of the car before...more
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Read in January, 2002
recommends it for:
anyone
Not only was this a very inspiring book but it was almost as good a movie. Early November I was honored to have met Mr. Hickam, listen to him read from this book as well as sign our copy.
I have added this ISBN because it was on the dust jacket of the book even though the interior states Rocket Boys. Interestingly enough Mr. Hickam explained how they needed a new name for the movie when it came out since Rocket Man was due to release and October Sky was an acronym for Rocket Boys. He hated...more
I have added this ISBN because it was on the dust jacket of the book even though the interior states Rocket Boys. Interestingly enough Mr. Hickam explained how they needed a new name for the movie when it came out since Rocket Man was due to release and October Sky was an acronym for Rocket Boys. He hated...more
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Read in September, 2004
recommends it for:
those who dream and aim high
I love this book. The locale is the tiny coal county where three generations of my mother's family lived, loved, hated and died, McDowell Co., WV. I am just retiring from teaching in a small mountain county in NC. So often, I hear kids say, "We ain't nothin' but hillbillies." We read the book at school, watch the wonderful film and they learn the truth -- aim high. The worse you can do is fail and try again; at best, you get your dreams. It is a wonderful, inspiring book that is n...more
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Read in July, 2008
This was wonderful! It was warm and hilarious and it really sucked me in. It was one of those books that made me forget everything else entirely until I laughed out loud and then looked around sheepishly to see if anyone caught me at it. What I loved most about it was Homer's perspective, he has a joyful and attractive way of expressing himself. I think I would enjoy reading anything he had to write, he is such an excellent story teller. I also loved how he made me fall in love with all the peop...more
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This was a very inspirational book. A coal mining town where either coal mminers, football, or the wives of coal miners. The inspiration to this was that Homer Hickam found out that there is more to life than mining coal. He goes behind his dads back doing things with rockets that his dad said that he is not goin to get anywhere in life but mining coal. This just reminds me that if you dream it, you should let nothing get in your way of chasing your, dream even if its your family which Homer did...more
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Read in October, 2005
recommended to Granny by:
a high school technology teacherrecommends it for: anyone who was a teen in the 1950's, folks who want to inspire young people
I love Homer Hickam! First of all, his books are written about McDowell Co., WV, where three generations of my forebears lived, worked and died. When I worked at our local high school in our little remote mountain county in North Carolina, we showed "October Sky" to the tech classes, to show what kids can do with the right guidance and a whole lot of determination. Absolutely loved the next two books, as well. I feel that his descriptions of the locale, and the characters themselves, ...more
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Read in August, 2007
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.
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I just worked with one of my former students on an essay she was writing concerning memoir and the scientific method (a great topic - I was proud of her) for an integrated Science/English project. This is one of the books she's using and I forgot how much I loved this book when I used to teach it with a unit on Dreams. It's well-told and well-written. I love the idea of this group of boys in the midst of so much resistance rising up to find their dream. It's very inspiring.
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This was a really good book that reminded me of my dad. He is about the same age as the author and was always interested in the space program, building his own rockets in the backyard, etc. The boys in this book had such a limited future based on how they grew up, their parents grew up, they were mostly just assumed to be destined to be miners like their dads, but the boys in the book used their own ingenuity to broaden their horizons and follow their dreams. Very good read.
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Read in March, 2008
I loved the movie, October Sky, and always meant to read the book. I'm so glad I did! It's a wonderful memoir about some boys growing up in a coal-mining town in the mountains of West Virginia in the 1950s right around the time Sputnik launched. They get rocket fever and with the help of half the town, launch their rockets as high as six miles into the sky! They teach themselves trigonometry and convince the high school to offer calculus so they can fly their rockets higher.
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This book was not what I expected because I thought that the movie would be like it. I know . . . I made the mistake of reading the book after seeing the movie. I was a little disappointed at how the characters were a little bit less wholesome than Hollywood portrayed them but at the same time Homer Hickam gives good insight into living during the space race. I will read the next few books in the series but surprisingly they are hard to find.
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