Rocket Boys

Author: Homer J. Hickam, Jr.
Bugs: 5
Review by: CBS

This book was assigned summer reading for my seventeen year old co-worker. I think it is a great choice for high school readers because the story centers on a group of high school boys in the late 1950's to 1960 in a coal town in West Virginia. The Russian's launch of Sputnik had a huge impact on their school and on their lives. Following them through their rocket research, building, and launching makes for an exciting story. The help they receive from their families, friends, neighbors, and mine workers gives fresh meaning to "It takes a village to raise a child."

Author Hickam, a retired NASA engineer, gives a good description of his high school times with the music, the clothes (I had forgotten about the boys' pegged chinos with the buckle in the back) and the social scene.

Since those years were leading up to my own high school years, I found myself transported (they, too, watched Bandstand).

This was a really good read!!