Product Description

Three years in the life of Homer 'Sonny' Hickam, from the moment he sees the Sputnik satellite overhead in West Virginia to his successful launch of a prizewinning rocket. A nostalgic and lyrical memoir of growing up in rural West Virginia in the 1950s and one boy's dream to rival the Russians in the race for space. In 1957 in Coalwood, West Virginia, a town dominated by the black steel towers of the mine and the coal waggons, for a fourteen year old boy there are two routes in life: a football scholarship to college or a life underground. "Sonny" Hickam, the mine superintendent's younger son, is too small for the football team. But his destiny is altered when the town turns out to watch the Soviet Sputnik satellite pass overhead. From that moment, Homer Hickam and his friends determine that they will form the Big Creek Missle Agency and build an American rocket. This is the true story of the boys' adventures from the moment their first rocket, Auk 1, destroys the garden fence and the lovingly tended roses. Supported only by a tolerant mother and a father who turns a literally blind eye, Sonny gradually entrances the entire town to support his enterprise, which eventually is entered for the National Science Fair. He is the first boy from Coalwood ever to enter and among the judges is Werner von Braun. October Sky is the story of a a group of young enthusiasts whose ambition revives an industrial town in decline. They are emblems of a better future, of a life outside the vicious confines of the pit, of a world beyond the imagination. This is a sensitive, funny, brilliant tale of boys besotted by a dream: they want to build a rocket.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #122648 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
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, USA, 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 honour for a miner's kid--is rich in humour 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

Mail on Sunday
'Gloriously inspiring'

Irish Times
'Deserves to take its place in the long line of American classics running from Tom Sawyer to To Kill A Mocking Bird.'

Customer Reviews

Homer's "Odyssey"
It takes a human pyramid comprising nearly 400,000 people to put one man on the moon, that is 399,999 who don't get the glory and whose names are not remembered. So why do they do it? What makes them get involved and build rocketships? Homer Hickams "October Sky" (aka "The Rocket Boys") shows us two things; passion for rockets, and the struggle of the underpriveliged to acheive something, anything that lifts their horizons and those of them around them.

Homer and friends' humble beginnings in coal rich Coalwood, West Virginia laid out a pre-determined life for them. They go to high school, then they go and work in the coal mines, and if they're very lucky, they can escape via a sporting scholarship to a College. Not that it happens for many. Homer and his close friends (Quentin, Roy Lee, and Sherman) had inspiration and support in the form of Werner von Braun and the Soviet Sputnik, and from their high school teacher Miss Riley - who says that teacher don't matter! - all of which galvanised the boys into building their own rockets.

October Sky is Homer's own story of his struggle to escape a dying town, his struggle to educate himself, and his striving to build viable rockets. Not only do the boys learn about rockets, but along the way they learn about themselves. All in all an inspiring read, emphasising that given the chance and the motivation kids can follow their dreams, and in Homer's case, all the way to NASA.

An authentic feel good book
Simply one of the best feel good experiences you will get from a book. It made me laugh and cry and appreciate life and the effort we should all make to live it in a more honest, fulfilling and meaningful way.
It manages to be sentimental, whimsical and emotional without ever passing into queasy simplicity. Sonny's relationship with both his parents, his friends, girls, with himself, as well as the story of conflict within the mine, offers a rounded reading experience that paints a vivid picture of a world that is probably long gone but whose issues and values are as pertinent today as ever.
'The Coalwood Way', Hickham's companion piece to 'Rocket Boys' (NB: not a follow up) is good as well; more of the same but doesn't hold up as well as a complete work.
Go buy, or borrow, and read, 'Rocket Boys' (aka 'October Sky'. But I wouldn't bother with the film).

You'll love this book.
Only bought this book on a whim - so glad I did. An inspirational read. Beautifully written, I was completely absorbed from the start - especially with it being a true story. Exciting, thought provoking, incredibly touching - one of the best books I have ever read. It's done the rounds of many of my friends who without exception loved it too.