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Rocket Boys cover art

Rocket Boys

Written by: Homer H. Hickam Jr.
Narrated by: Beau Bridges
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Publisher's Summary

In this uniquely American memoir, Homer "Sonny" 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. 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. After watching the Soviet Satellite Sputnik streak across the sky, Sonny and his friends took their future into their own hands, changing their lives and their town forever. With the help, and sometimes hindrance, of the people of Coalwood, West Virginia, 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.
©1998 Homer J. Hickam, Jr., All Rights Reserved (P)1998 Simon & Schuster Inc., All Rights Reserved
Professionals & Academics Astronomy & Space Science
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Profile Image for Will Woytkiw

Totally Spectacular

There are a number of reasons for why I enjoyed this book so much. Firstly, I think that Beau Bridges was the most perfect choice for narrating this story. I found myself identifying with Homer on so many things mentioned in his story. Homer is a few years older than I am, but I remember my brother and I turning off the kitchen lights, the porch lights and sitting on the back step looking into the night sky and seeing Sputnik. I also came to realize that people are more the same than they are different. Homer and I were raised in small towns separated by thousands of miles and yet we both grew up with friends, using our imagination to play games (in my case, cops and robbers, GI Joe in a wooded area on the edge of town). I guess, what I am trying to say is that, listening to Rocket Boys, brought back memories to me of where I was raised and the friends that I grew up with.

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