Description
When Sputnik, the world's first space satellite, flies over the small mining town of Coalwood, West Virginia in 1957, 14-year-old Sonny Hickam makes a decision: to build a rocket to rival the Russians. With the help of Roy Lee, O'Dell, Sherman, Billy and Quentin (the brains) and an almost limitless lack of knowledge, Sonny forms the Big Creek Missile Agency.
But while their mixture of scrap metal, explosive and kitchen physics becomes ever more combustible, tension seeps into the community when the mine is threatened with closure. Against a darkening horizon, the boys' race for space and adulthood gradually sweeps the whole town up in the quest for a better future.
Rocket Boys has been translated into eight languages and has received many awards. It was selected by the New York Times as one of its Great Books of 1998 and was an alternate Book-of-the-Month selection for both the Literary Guild and Doubleday book clubs. It was also nominated by the National Book Critics Circle as best Biography of 1998.