Rocketry Planet

If you love rocketry and rocketry books, then read the book that generated enough interest to create a movie. "Rocket Boys" by Homer Hickam reaches into the soul of any individual who has ever had a lust for rockets. If you enjoy the power of a model rocket in flight, then this is a must-read. Read the reviews and decide for yourself. You can find out more about the movie at http://www.universalpictures.com/octobersky/.

Rocket Boys by Homer H. Hickam List Price: $26.00 Our Price: $17.16 You Save: $8.84(34%)  Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours. Hardcover - 352 pages (September 15, 1998) Delacorte Pr; ISBN: 038533320X; Dimensions (in inches): 1.22 x 9.57 x 6.40 Amazon.com Sales Rank: 1,007 Avg. Customer Review:

Amazon.com
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

The New York Times Book Review, James R. Gaines
Hickam admits taking "certain liberties" in telling it. But whatever its flaws, it's a good bet this is the story as he told it to himself. It is a lovely one, and in the career of Homer H. Hickam Jr., who prevailed over the facts of his life to become a NASA engineer training astronauts for space walks, that made all the difference.

The New York Times, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt
The only flaw of Rocket Boys is that its plot seems just a shade too well made even for a work of fiction, let alone a memoir.... Yet if Hickam's plotting seems here and there manipulated, what always ring true are his adventures in rocketry.

From Publishers Weekly
Great memoirs must balance the universal and the particular. Too much of the former makes it overly familiar; too much of the latter makes readers ask what the story has to do with them. In his debut, Hickam, a retired NASA engineer, walks that line beautifully. On one level, it's the story of a teenage boy who learns about dedication, responsibility, thermodynamics and girls. On the other hand, it's about a dying way of life in a coal town where the days are determined by the rhythms of the mine and the company that controls everything and everybody. Hickam's father is Coalwood, W.Va.'s mine superintendent, whose devotion to the mine is matched only by his wife's loathing for it. When Sputnik inspires "Sonny" with an interest in rockets, she sees it not as a hobby but as a way to escape the mines. After an initial, destructive try involving 12 cherry bombs, Sonny and his cronies set up the Big Creek Missile Agency (BCMA). From Auk I (top altitude, six feet), through Auk XXXI (top altitude, 31,000 feet), the boys experiment with nozzles, fins and, most of all, fuel, graduating from a basic black powder to "rocket candy" (melted potassium chlorate and sugar) to "Zincoshine" (zinc, sulfur, moonshine). But Coalwood is the real star, here. Teachers, clergy, machinists, town gossips, union, management, everyone become co-conspirators in the BCMA's explosive three-year project. Hickam admits to taking poetic license in combining characters and with the sequence of events, and if there is any flaw, it's that the people and the narrative seem a little too perfect. But no matter how jaded readers have become by the onslaught of memoirs, none will want to miss the fantastic voyage of BCMA, Auk and Coalwood. First serial to Life. 10-city author tour. (Sept.) FYI: Rocket Boys is currently in production at Universal, which plans to release it later this year.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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But his life is also a model for our time. Homer Hickam is a very special person and he has told the story of his life in this book. Mr. Hickam grew up modestly in a coal mining town. His love of rocketry, no his passion for rocketry pulls him out of an average community and propels him to success inspite of his family and surroundings.

Few books appeal to adults and young adults alike. This is one. I want my wife to read it as well as my 13 year old son. Hickam is a mentor and I've never even met him. This is such down to earth honest writing it makes you smile.

Read this wonderful story and you will have a hard time approaching your next mystery or drama. It is refeshing. I don't even want to see the movie after reading this book. I want the images I have to last not the ones Hollywood created.

Science, history, and coming of age--all in a great book!, September 27, 2003
If all Hickman had done was give us a portrait of life and growing up in an Appalacian coal mining town in the 50's, this would be a great book. But Hickman uses this setting as the foundation of a much larger story...the race to space, the revolution in America caused by Sputnick, and the opening of small towns accross America to the wider world with the advent of mass communications.

Of course, at base, this is a typical coming of age teen story. During the course of the book, we watch as Hickman grows from a self centered kid into a teen with an accute awareness of the complexity, moral choices, and dangers of the world beyond the borders of his hometown--and of the dangers lurking right at home.

But Homer Hickman is no ordinary teen. He dreams of space. He knows he is destined to build rockets--though he knows absolutely nothing of rocketry, and is failing algebra. Nonetheless, he perseveres. Using his own natrual smarts, his ability to talk his parents, other adults, and many of his friends into anything, and using his "political" connections shrewdly (his father is the mine manager), he overcomes all hurdles--technological and personal--to build a rocket that works.

He doesn't stop there. Once he gets a rocket to fly, he wants to get one into orbit. It is this quest (reminiscent of so many other quest books form Don Quixote to Moby Dick) that forms the center piece of the narrative, and is the engine for opening his mind to the realities of the world beyond his coal mining town.

Needless to say, since he wrote the book, he obviously escaped. The journey is inspiring. The writing inspired. The book is a must read for adults and teens alike.

The hero is the father, July 20, 2006
I've read this book many times, and with each successive reading I begin to feel more and more admiration and empathy for "Sonny"'s father. At first reading, I thought, "Yes, it's just like everybody said, Sonny's dad is too wrapped up in the mine and in Sonny's older brother to notice he had a second son." Then I read it the second time, and the third, and the fourth. By the fifth time, I had completely revised my opinion of Homer Hickam Sr. I came to see him not as a father who didn't think Sonny would come to anything, but rather as a father who saw his great potential and feared that potential was being wasted, at least at first. But then, it becomes more and more obvious as the book goes on that as Sonny's rockets improve, so does his father's opinion about his dream. I don't think it was ever a case of him not loving Sonny enough or not thinking him intelligent enough. Many, many times throughout the book, Homer Sr. comes to bat for Sonny, and not always when he's been more or less sweetly strong-armed into it by Elsie Hickam.

To me, the most powerful scene in the whole book was the paragraph or two that covered the killing of Sonny's cat Daisy Mae. Sonny sick with grief but manfully trying to cover it; the friends who quietly came to his side and didn't belittle him for his sorrow over a lost pet; the mother sitting on the porch with the shoebox in her lap; and then the line about his father coming to look at Sonny for a moment, then getting in his car and driving away. I didn't see that as a man who was embarrassed at his son's reaction; I saw a man that was so furious he had to get away and cool down before he did something he would really regret to whoever had caused this pain to his son.

I could see Homer Senior's love and pride for Sonny throughout the whole book, not just at the very end when he came for a launch and got to fire the last rocket. He was there, every step of the way...certainly not as enthusiastically as he was over Jim's football prowess, but there nonetheless.

HEARTWARMING!, June 7, 2006
Homer Hickman's memoir is filled with humor and pathos. The coming of age of a young man filled with the passion and ambition necessary to overcome the life he seemed destined to follow, in his father's footsteps. Fighting for his dream of becoming a "rocket scientist", pushed him farther and farther from the father he loved. Yet he craved his father's love and respect. Even after achieving most of his dreams, you can still hear the longing in his words, for the love of a father he could never feel close to.

It is a very quick read and is exceptionally entertaining. It gave me some solace in knowing that my situation is not unique and success can follow in the life of the boy who doesn't follow the path of his father and excels inspite of living in the shadows.

Excellent story. Thank you Mr. Hickam for sharing it with me.

Out of this world!, April 25, 2006
Homer Hickam's Rocket Boys is the first memoir I have read - and I thought it was great. Very easy read - finished in a few nights because I couldn't put it down.

Hickam describes his childhood adventures and boyhood friends in the poor coal mining town of Coalwood, WV. He uses details in such a way that they are interesting, provacative and key to understanding the era in which he lived. I find some authors throw in too many non-critical details that the story is bogged down and boring. Not Hickam.

Knowing everything written was true made the book very enjoyable. Fiction is great, but I could picture the life of someone who not only existed, but excelled and went on to great things. Good inspiration.

I would recommend this book to middle school and above. It's a non-fiction book which isn't boring and makes you glad you invested your time. 

Simply a fabulous tale which is superbly told, November 12, 1998
There is a certain fraternity to West Virginians which until the writing of this book was widely unknown. Homer Hickam has shed a seldom seen light on a culture and way of life that is all but gone in most regions of the world. It is a simply tale that is told with honesty and candor that is easily understood but rare among authors. This is an autobiographical tale of a young man who overcomes what most would percieve as adversity but is simply a way of life to many West Virginians. Hickam set himself apart from the crowd early in his life by pursuing his dream with dogged determination and adaptability. The story is told with insight as well as humor. It deals with a subject which can be tedious to some perhaps but remain interesting through out due to the characters and their character. Hickams strained relationship with his father and brother is dealt with openly and honestly as are all aspects of the story. This is the true definition of a good old fashioned page turner be you a fellow West Virginian like myself or a new comer to that part of the world. Hickam, as so many people of that region do, welcomes you in with open arms. You may not stay forever as many don't, but like this book you won't soon forget it.

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