Be Specific About Books To Rocket Boys (Coalwood #1)
| Original Title: | Rocket Boys |
| ISBN: | 0385333218 (ISBN13: 9780385333214) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | Coalwood #1 |
| Setting: | West Virginia(United States) |
| Literary Awards: | National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee for Biography/Autobiography (1998), Weatherford Award (1998), Alabama Author Award for Nonfiction (2001) |
Homer Hickam
Paperback | Pages: 384 pages Rating: 4.21 | 16153 Users | 1812 Reviews
Point Regarding Books Rocket Boys (Coalwood #1)
| Title | : | Rocket Boys (Coalwood #1) |
| Author | : | Homer Hickam |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 384 pages |
| Published | : | January 11th 2000 by Delta (first published 1998) |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. Autobiography. Memoir. Biography. Science. History |
Narration In Favor Of Books Rocket Boys (Coalwood #1)
"Until I began to build and launch rockets, I didn't know my home town was at war with itself over its children, and that my parents were locked in a kind of bloodless combat over how my brother and I would live our lives. I didn't know that if a girl broke your heart, another girl, virtuous at least in spirit, could mend it on the same night. And I didn't know that the enthalpy decrease in a converging passage could be transformed into jet kinetic energy if a divergent passage was added. The other boys discovered their own truths when we built our rockets, but those were mine." So begins Homer "Sonny" Hickam Jr.'s extraordinary memoir of life in Coalwood, West Virginia - a hard-scrabble little mining company town where the only things that mattered were coal mining and high school football and where the future was regarded with more fear than hope. Looking back after a distinguished NASA career, Hickam shares the story of his youth, taking readers into the life of the little mining town of Coalwood and the boys who would come to embody its dreams. In 1957 a young man watched the Soviet satellite Sputnik shoot across the Appalachian sky and soon found his future in the stars. 'Sonny' and a handful of his friends, Roy Lee Cook, Sherman O'Dell and Quentin Wilson were inspired to start designing and launching the home-made rockets that would change their lives forever. Step by step, with the help (and occasional hindrance) of a collection of unforgettable characters, the boys learn not only how to turn scrap into sophisticated rockets that fly miles into the sky, but how to sustain their dreams as they dared to imagine a life beyond its borders in a town that the postwar boom was passing by. A powerful story of growing up and of getting out, of a mother's love and a father's fears, Homer Hickam's memoir Rocket Boys proves, like Angela's Ashes and Russell Baker's Growing Up before it, that the right storyteller and the right story can touch readers' hearts and enchant their souls. A uniquely endearing book with universal themes of class, family, coming of age, and the thrill of discovery, Homer Hickam's Rocket Boys is evocative, vivid storytelling at its most magical. In 1999, Rocket Boys was made into a Hollywood movie named October Sky starring Chris Cooper, Jake Gyllenhaal and Laura Dern. October Sky is an anagram of Rocket Boys. It is also used in a period radio broadcast describing Sputnik 1 as it crossed the 'October sky'. Homer Hickam stated that "Universal Studios marketing people got involved and they just had to change the title because, according to their research, women over thirty would never see a movie titled Rocket Boys" so Universal Pictures changed the title to be more inviting to a wider audience. The book was later re-released with the name October Sky in order to capitalize on interest in the movie.Rating Regarding Books Rocket Boys (Coalwood #1)
Ratings: 4.21 From 16153 Users | 1812 ReviewsCriticize Regarding Books Rocket Boys (Coalwood #1)
When in Wales recently I finished reading October Sky by Homer H Hickam, which seemed to have a certain synchronicity for me at that moment in time. The book is set in Coalwood, West Virginia, a long way from Aberdare in the valleys of South Wales where I spent my earliest years and where its unmissable cemetery is the final resting place for generations of my ancestors. Mining was the lifeblood of both Coalwood and Aberdare, and my grandfather died from the same miners' lung disease that tookInteresting 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 freely on our own with things
Coalwood held quite a childhood. The town, the neighborhood! The strong connections of shared culture and identity of work. The gossip, the dust, the pattern of days- this book takes you there.And it also took me back to my own. A mere three years younger than Sonny here- I was doing quite the same but in other dirty and dusty air. More limestone than coal- but ever present.This is the second reading for about 1/2 of this book. Years ago I read the first half and never finished it. And no longer
This book was not my favorite. This isnt my favorite genre of books anyways, but one of my best friends recommended it to me, so I though I would give it a try. The book is super long- about 430 pages! I ended up skimming a majority of it. There were some inappropriate parts, as well as a LOT of swearing- like several times per chapter. This man is incredible though! His story is so inspiring! Even though everyone in his town worked in the mines, he defied the odds to build rockets and other
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.
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."
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.
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