Rocket Boys (The Coalwood Series #1)
by Homer H. Hickam
Our Price: $110.28
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.98 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Homer H. HickamEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Large Print
Published: 2000-06
ISBN: 1568959729
Publisher: Wheeler Publishers
Summary of Rocket Boys (The Coalwood Series #1)
The true story, originally published as Rocket Boys, that inspired the Universal Pictures film.It was 1957, the year Sputnik raced across the Appalachian sky, and the small town of Coalwood, West Virginia, was slowly dying.
Faced with an uncertain future, Homer Hickam nurtured a dream: to send rockets into outer space. The introspective son of the mine?s superintendent and a mother determined to get him out of Coalwood forever, Homer fell in with a group of misfits who learned not only how to turn scraps of metal into sophisticated rockets but how to sustain their hope in a town that swallowed its men alive.
As the boys began to light up the tarry skies with their flaming projectiles and dreams of glory, Coalwood, and the Hickams, would never be the same.
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
United States Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in United States Books
Carrying The Flag: The Story Of Private Charles Whilden, The Confederacy's Most Unlikely Heroby Gordon C. Rhea
Basic Books; Published: 2003-12-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
Black Titan: A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaireby Carol Jenkins, Elizabeth Gardner Hines
One World/Ballantine; Published: 2005-01-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.03
Price in other shops:
Oswald's Tale: An American Mysteryby Norman Mailer
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2007-01-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.60
Price in other shops:
Renegade: The Making of a Presidentby Richard Wolffe
Broadway; Published: 2010-05-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops:
Winter Brothers: A Season at the Edge of Americaby Ivan Doig
Mariner Books; Published: 1982-10-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.16
Price in other shops:
When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reaganby Peggy Noonan
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2002-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.24
Price in other shops:
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Penguin Classics)by Harriet Jacobs
Penguin Classics; Published: 2000-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
The Invention of Solitudeby Paul Auster
Penguin; Published: 1988-05-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.68
Price in other shops:
On My Own at 107: Reflections on Life Without Bessieby Sarah L. Delany, Amy Hill Hearth
HarperOne; Published: 1998-01-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $21.99
The Way You Wear Your Hat : Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin'by Bill Zehme
Harper; Published: 1997-11-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Bread Givers: A Novelby Anzia Yezierska
Persea; Published: 2003-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops:
Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Storyby Timothy B. Tyson
Broadway; Published: 2005-05-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.38
Price in other shops:
Torpedo Junction: U-Boat War Off America's East Coast, 1942 (Bluejacket Books)by Homer Hickam
US Naval Institute Press; Published: 1996-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.89
Price in other shops:
We Is Got Him: The Kidnapping that Changed Americaby Carrie Hagen
Overlook Hardcover; Published: 2011-08-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.00
Price in other shops:
The Children's Blizzard (P.S.)by David Laskin
Harper Perennial; Published: 2005-10-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.25
Price in other shops:
Back to the Moon: A Novelby Homer Hickam
Island Books; Published: 2000-04-11; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.19
Price in other shops:
We Are Not Afraid: Strength and Courage from the Town That Inspired the #1 Bestseller and Award-Winning Movie "October Sky"by Homer Hickam
HCI; Published: 2002-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.45
Price in other shops:
Sky of Stone: A Memoirby Homer Hickam
Dell; Published: 2002-10-29; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.74
Price in other shops:
The Coalwood Wayby Homer Hickam
Island Books; Published: 2001-09-04; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops:
October Sky (Special Edition)Universal Studios; Release date: 2005-01-25; Published: 2005-01-01; DVD
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops: