Rocket Boys

A Memoir

By: Homer Hickam

Narrated by: Beau Bridges

Until I began to build and launch rockets, I didn't know my hometown 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....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 hardscrabble little company town where the only things that mattered were coal mining and high-school football. The son of the mine's superintendent and a mother determined to push her son to a better life, Sonny fell in with a group of misfits for whom the future looked uncertain. But in 1957, after watching the Soviet Satellite Sputnik streak across the sky, Sonny and his teenage friends took their future into their own hands, changing their lives and their town forever.
Looking back after a distinguished NASA career that fulfilled his boyhood ambition, Hickam shares the story of his youth, taking listeners into the life of the little mining town and the boys who came to embody both its tensions and its dreams. With the help -- and sometimes hindrance -- of the people of Coalwood, the Rocket Boys learn not only how to turn mine scraps into rockets that soar miles into the heavens, but how to find hope in a town that progress is passing by.
In this uniquely American memoir, Homer Hickam beautifully captures a moment when a dying town, a divided family, and a band of teenage dreamers dared to set their sights on the stars -- and saw a future that the nation was just beginning to imagine.©1998 Homer J. Hickam, Jr., All Rights Reserved; (P)1998 Simon & Schuster Inc., All Rights Reserved; AUDIOWORKS Is an Imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster Inc.

Hard to put down

A great story about how people can come together to accomplish something far greater than than the pursuits of an individual. It also helps you appreciate how we can impact the lives of others. Basically, we can build people up or tear them down. Enjoy the story, but reflect on the greater meaning.

Fantastic book

A fantastic book about adolescent and a love for science and technology in a little town of Coalwood

Large parts of the book left out!

I was suspicious when I saw how short this was. They left out a lot of very interesting stories that were in the book. If you haven’t read the book, you may not miss them but to me the story isn’t nearly as compelling without them.

Highly recommended!

A very incredible, inspirational story about a young man and his dreams, life in a small town, and relationships.

Inspiration

I watched October Sky, an anagram of Rocket Boys, many years ago. Read this story.