Rocket Boys. Homer Hickam, Jr. Large Print Press. Rockland, MA. 2000.

Review by Joel
Rocket Boys, also known as October Sky, is the memoir of a boy and his friends in high school in a small mining town in West Virginia. It is an inspirational coming-of-age story set in a company mining town of Coalwood. Although at times a nostalgic look at the late 1950’s, this is a true story of a boy becoming a man. One of the things I liked about this book was the natural way his scenes flowed. The characters were well developed, and moved through settings that were meticulously detailed. I actually cared about the characters and wondered how they faired after the story was over. Luckily there are two more books in a series on Coalwood, which I am reading now. I thought Homer really captured the essence of what growing up in his hometown must have been like and brought that out in an entertaining read as well. Prodigious!

There is a web site to check out for more info. They have an October Sky festival. The Homer Hickam official Web site - October Sky-Rocket Boys, The Keeper's Son.

Joel esq.

Rocket Boys. Homer H. Hickam, Jr. Simon & Schuster Audio. Abridged edition. 1998.

Review by Jane
I listened to this audio book and was reminded of the popular movie, “October Sky” that was based on the memoir, Rocket Boys, but it had been awhile since I had seen it and I could not recall all the details when Joel recommended this book. Written with humor, this book is a quite naturally sentimental account of a club of young middle to high school kids who set out to make rockets in response to the advances in space travel in the late 1950’s. But these were kids from a coal mining town in West Virginia, called Coalwood. Homer Hickam balances several areas of his young life in the telling of this story, making for an interesting exchange. Memoirs are often inspiring, and proved so for this book, as this young boy had obstacles and overcame them. He actually struggled with math and in the beginning was discouraged by his father, not to mention the struggles he found himself in between his parents and whether he would remain in Coalwood. I enjoyed the brief mention of where the boys ended up. Anyone who aspires to achieve seemingly unattainable goals and is looking for role models would find value in this entertaining story.