Rocket Boys
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Varies, see individual formats and editions
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Language:
English
Description
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.
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.
More Details
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ISBN:
9780743548489
9780440333876
9780440333876
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Grouping Information
Grouped Work ID | 71795b67-370e-885d-5968-a4a6b835bb1b |
---|---|
Grouping Title | rocket boys |
Grouping Author | homer hickam |
Grouping Category | book |
Grouping Language | English (eng) |
Last Grouping Update | 2023-02-08 03:51:45AM |
Last Indexed | 2023-02-08 04:29:00AM |
Solr Fields
accelerated_reader_point_value
0
accelerated_reader_reading_level
0
auth_author2
Bridges, Beau
author
Hickam, Homer
author2-role
Bridges, Beau
hoopla digital
hoopla digital
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Hickam, Homer
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Online OverDrive Collection
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Online Hoopla Collection
Online OverDrive Collection
Online OverDrive Collection
display_description
The #1 New York Times bestselling memoir that inspired the film October Sky, Rocket Boys is a uniquely American memoir—a powerful, luminous story of coming of age at the dawn of the 1960s, of a mother's love and a father's fears, of a group of young men who dreamed of launching rockets into outer space . . . and who made those dreams come true.
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, even in a company town that swallowed its men alive. A story of romance and loss, of growing up and getting out, Homer Hickam's lush, lyrical memoir is a chronicle of triumph—at once exquisitely written and marvelously entertaining.
One of the most beloved bestsellers in recent years, Rocket Boys is a uniquely American memoir. A powerful, luminous story of coming of age at the end of the 1950s, it is the story of a mother's love and a father's fears, of growing up and getting out. With the grace of a natural storyteller, Homer Hickam looks back after a distinguished NASA career to tell his own true story of growing up in a dying coal town and of how, against the odds, he made his dreams of launching rockets into outer space come true.
A story of romance and loss and a keen portrait of life at an extraordinary point in American history, Rocket Boys is a chronicle of triumph.
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, even in a company town that swallowed its men alive. A story of romance and loss, of growing up and getting out, Homer Hickam's lush, lyrical memoir is a chronicle of triumph—at once exquisitely written and marvelously entertaining.
One of the most beloved bestsellers in recent years, Rocket Boys is a uniquely American memoir. A powerful, luminous story of coming of age at the end of the 1950s, it is the story of a mother's love and a father's fears, of growing up and getting out. With the grace of a natural storyteller, Homer Hickam looks back after a distinguished NASA career to tell his own true story of growing up in a dying coal town and of how, against the odds, he made his dreams of launching rockets into outer space come true.
A story of romance and loss and a keen portrait of life at an extraordinary point in American history, Rocket Boys is a chronicle of triumph.
format_addison
eAudiobook
eBook
eBook
format_category_addison
Audio Books
eBook
eBook
id
71795b67-370e-885d-5968-a4a6b835bb1b
isbn
9780440333876
9780743548489
9780743548489
last_indexed
2023-02-08T10:29:00.932Z
lexile_score
-1
literary_form
Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
local_callnumber_addison
Online OverDrive
owning_library_addison
Addison Public Library Online
owning_location_addison
Online OverDrive Collection
primary_isbn
9780743548489
publishDate
1998
1999
1999
publisher
Random House Publishing Group
Simon & Schuster Audio
Simon & Schuster Audio
recordtype
grouped_work
series
Coalwood
series_with_volume
Coalwood|
title_display
Rocket Boys
title_full
Rocket Boys
Rocket Boys A Memoir
Rocket boys [electronic resource] / Homer Hickam
Rocket Boys A Memoir
Rocket boys [electronic resource] / Homer Hickam
title_short
Rocket Boys
topic_facet
Biography & Autobiography
Family & Relationships
History
Nonfiction
Family & Relationships
History
Nonfiction
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overdrive:aadd9e33-1b56-4376-906c-38db2ace2ddd | eBook | eBook | English | Random House Publishing Group | 1999 |
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