Rocket Boys#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “nostalgic and entertaining memoir” (People) about a group of young men who dreamed of launching rockets into outer space—the inspiration for the film October Sky “A message of hope in an age of cynicism. . . . Perhaps we all have something to learn from a half-dozen boys who dared to reject all limitations . . . and resolved to send dreams roaring to the sky.”—The San Diego Union-Tribune 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. With the grace of a natural storyteller, NASA engineer Homer Hickam paints a warm, vivid portrait of the harsh West Virginia mining town of his youth, evoking a time of innocence and promise, when anything was possible. Lush and lyrical, Rocket Boys is a uniquely American memoir: A powerful, luminous story of coming of age at the end of the 1950s, of a mother’s love and a father’s fears, and of growing up and getting out. |
Contents
3 | |
The Football Fathers | |
Quentin | |
Mr Bykovski | |
Cape Coalwood | |
Construction of the Cape | |
Jake Mosby | |
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Common terms and phrases
asked beside better Big Creek boys build Bykovski called Cape casement church coal Coalwood Dad’s didn’t don’t door Dorothy Dubonnet Emily everything eyes face fair father feet felt fence figure finally followed football front gave girls give going gone hand happened head heard hoped inside Jake keep kind kitchen knew laughed launch leave living looked miners Miss Riley morning mother mountains move never night nozzle O’Dell once past picked playing pulled Quentin road rock rocket Roy Lee seemed Sherman side Sonny standing started steel steps stood stopped Store sure talk tell thing thought told took town turned Turner waited walked watched Welch West Virginia wondered worried