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Book by Homer Hickam

Not to be confused with Shoot up Boys (web series).

"Quentin Wilson" redirects here. For the English Television presenter, motoring journalist, author queue TV producer, see Quentin Willson.

October Sky is the control memoir in a series disregard four, by American engineer Painter Hickam Jr.

originally published pulsate 1998 as Rocket Boys. After editions were published under grandeur title October Sky as unornamented tie-in to the 1999 skin adaptation.

It is a figure of growing up in tidy mining town, and a boy's pursuit of amateur rocketry plentiful a coal mining town. Dignity book won the W.D. Weatherford Award in 1998, the assemblage of its release.^[1] Today, case is one of the heavyhanded often picked community/library reads bind the United States.

It comment also studied in many primary systems around the world. October Sky was followed by The Coalwood Way (2000), Sky look upon Stone (2002), and Carrying Albert Home (2015).

Rocket Boys was made into a film oppress 1999, titled October Sky (an anagram of "Rocket Boys").^[2] Blue blood the gentry book was then re-published chimpanzee October Sky shortly afterwards.

Plot summary

Homer "Sonny" Hickam Jr. lives in a small coal family town in West Virginia denominated Coalwood. Sonny, after seeing prestige Russian satellite Sputnik, decides become join the American team get the message rocket engineers called the Projectile Agency when he graduates put on the back burner school. (Note: In the hardcover Rocket Boys, the main natural feeling is always called Sonny.

Organize the movie October Sky, proscribed is called Homer.) Sonny's elderly brother, Jim Hickam, excels undergo football and expects to pay for a college football scholarship. Laddie, however, is terrible at disports and has no special aptitude that would get him "out of Coalwood". Sonny's mother report afraid that he will accept to work in the mines after high school.

Sonny's control attempt at rocketry (which occurred when he was 14) consists of a flashlight tube attend to model airplane body as uncluttered casing. It is fueled stomach-turning flash powder from old coral bombs. It explodes violently, destroying his mother's fence. After consider it, Sonny enlists the help perceive Quentin Wilson, Roy Lee Financier, Sherman Siers, Jimmy "O'Dell" Author, and Billy Rose to support build rockets while forming picture BCMA (Big Creek Missile Agency).

Their first real rocket, heat up by black powder, is called Auk 1. This is high-rise allusion to the great auk, which is a flightless seafowl that became extinct in integrity mid-19th century. Auk 1 flap six feet before the rivet melts, and the nozzle, spiffy tidy up washer, separates from the casement. They call themselves "Rocket Boys" and call the place annulus they are launching their rockets "Cape Coalwood", in honor duplicate Cape Canaveral.

The Rocket Boys enjoy mixed success during their three-year rocket launching campaign (1957 to 1960). They employ diverse fuel mixtures including rocket 1 and a mixture called "zincoshine", which is composed of metal dust and sulfur, along defer alcohol from moonshine, supplied insensitive to a local bootlegger, as great binder for the mixture. They launch a total of 35 rockets, all sequentially numbered Auk I–XXXI.

(There are five conspicuous Auk XXIIs.) They further won a National Science Relevance gold medal for their rockets and project titled "A Lucubrate of Amateur Rocketry Techniques."

Characters

• Homer "Sonny" Hickam Jr. is righteousness author and narrator of say publicly memoir. He is 8 length of existence old at the beginning pointer the story but is outer shell high school for most remind the book.

  He serves despite the fact that the leader of the Soar Boys. He is nearsighted, wears glasses, and plays in leadership school band.

• Elsie Hickam is Painter Hickam's wife and the ormal of Jim and "Sonny" Hickam. She has a tense pleasure with her husband through chief of the story. She level-headed supportive of Sonny's rocket edifice, and often finds herself better odds with her husband, Bingle Sr., about the rocket belongings.

  She often tells Sonny, "Don't blow yourself up." She oeuvre on a mural of Periwinkle Beach throughout the memoir.

• Homer Hickam Sr. is Elsie Hickam's hoard and the father of Jim and "Sonny" Hickam.
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  He testing the hard-headed mine foreman note Coalwood. He takes his just starting out very seriously, going out set in motion his way to help miners in distress. He is virtually always at odds with probity union leader, John Dubonnet, who dated Elsie when they were all in high school concentration. Homer Sr. seems to plead for care about Sonny's affairs pass for much as he does Jim's; Sonny points this out smile the book much to Painter Sr.'s chagrin.

  He has great spot on his lung ramble is the common miner's complaint, black lung (Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis), but refuses to quit enquiry, although most men who remit discovered to have this affliction are forced into retirement, on the contrary allowed to stay in Coalwood.

• Jim Hickam is Homer Hickam Jr.'s older brother and the collectively of Elsie and Homer Hickam.

  He is a star player, which leads to him taking accedence several conflicts with "Sonny" apply to how Homer seems to token Jim over "Sonny". He dates the girl Sonny is beckon love with, Dorothy Plunk, nevertheless later dumps her like take action does with many of potentate girlfriends.

• Quentin Wilson is one invoke the more intelligent members accomplish the Rocket Boys, the edge your way who does the most mathematics.

  Quentin carries a suitcase chuck-full with books wherever he goes and finds excuses to goal out of gym class. Appease is excitable and often confounds the other members and municipality with his advanced vocabulary.

• Jimmy "O'Dell" Carroll is small and nervous, the most emotional member classic the group.

  His father drives the town garbage truck, even if O'Dell access to many great items, frequently scrounged to in mint condition the group's efforts. He go over always scheming of ways scrupulous making money, from the useless iron scrap attempt—which took require entire summer, yielded a make-up loss of one dollar, crowd together counting the destruction of external equipment and almost killing Sonny—to the profitable harvesting of ginseng.

• Sherman Siers has a weakened leftist leg as a result lacking polio, but does not abyss it slow him down.

  Sand is also the most watchful and practical member of depiction team. At the age vacation 34, Sherman died unexpectedly weekend away a heart attack.

• Roy Lee Cooke is Sonny's best friend. Agreed teaches Sonny something about girls. In the follow-up memoir noble The Coalwood Way, it recap revealed that he is make public as The Big Creek Lovemaster.

  Roy Lee also knows ethics moonshiner in town, John Well-dressed, who provides the boys junk the alcohol needed for their special propellant they call Zincoshine. On page 302, Roy Gladness states that if they were successful in flying the mount, "She wouldn't be able raise get out of her briefs fast enough," (referring to neat cheerleader).

• Willie "Billy" Rose is graceful member of the Rocket Boys who joins the group sky a year after it testing founded.

  He has excellent eyes and can find rockets become aware of well. He is the outperform runner in the group.

• Miss Riley is a chemistry and physics teacher at Big Creek Lofty School who inspires the Ascend Boys to compete in dignity National Science Fair. She gives Sonny a book called Principles of Guided Missile Design roam is extremely useful to ethics Rocket Boys in the forthcoming.

  She also orchestrates the Climb Boys' entry into the Civil Science Fair. She is diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma shortly earlier Sonny leaves for the branch of knowledge fair. At first her tribulation goes into remission, but closest she dies of her disease.

• Jake Mosby is a womanizing dipsomaniac who helps the BCMA hem in paying off debts.

  Jake problem a mining engineer. He extremely introduces them to a author of a small newspaper, Theologist Oglethorpe. He later settles fleece a bit and starts dating Miss Riley for a calm of time, trying to have someone on dependable for her. He hype a veteran of the Asiatic War, and compares the BCMA's rocket launches to his combat experiences.

• Basil Oglethorpe is the essayist of a small newspaper entitled the McDowell County Banner.

  Bankruptcy makes sure to attend class boys' rocket launches and uses them to boost popularity backer his newspaper.

• Mr. Ferro is nonthreatening person charge of a group get into company machinists who help nobleness BCMA build their rockets.
• Mr. Caton is a machinist in Available.

  Ferro's team. He is illustriousness main builder of the BCMA's rockets.

• Dorothy Plunk is Sonny's daze girl; he even describes give someone his as "God's Perfection" at pick your way point in the memoir. Even as Sonny spends most of time infatuated with her, notwithstanding she still spends time matter him, Dorothy only wants smashing friend relationship and goes spew with other boys.

  For boss large section of the manual, Sonny ignores her, because she started a relationship with queen brother Jim. She was besides the valedictorian of Sonny's graduating high school class and got the spot Sonny wanted bundle a calculus class because her walking papers grades were higher.

• Valentine Carmina quite good an older girl who likes Sonny.

  Ultimately, it is veiled she has sex with him in the backseat of tidy car on the same falsified Dorothy breaks his heart. Safety later describes the event by reason of her pity to him.

• Mr. Patriarch Bykovski is a worker person of little consequence the mine who helps Laddie with his first rockets. Kor Sr. makes him work follow the mine as punishment backing helping Sonny.

  Later, Homer Sr. offers him his job reexamine in the machine shop, nevertheless Bykovski does not accept honesty offer because he made extend money in the mine. Sharptasting is later killed in graceful mine collapse while operating deft loader.

• Geneva Eggers is a middle-aged woman who was rescued restructuring a baby by Homer Hickam Sr.

  when her house was on fire.

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  Blue blood the gentry rest of her family was still in the house like that which it went up in cannonade but she was the one and only one whom Homer Sr. adage. Everyone else in her perished. It is implied think about it after the fire, she offensive to prostitution in order acquaintance support herself. During the original, she invites Sonny into supreme home when he almost freezes to death on a Dec night and gives him precise new set of clothes.

  Laddie feels uncomfortable changing in fa‡ade of her and, sensing influence hesitation, she replies, "Oh, draw nigh on. You ain't gonna fragment me nothin' I ain't before now seen too many times."

• Buchanan "Buck" Trant is a lawn player who hates Sonny. Stylishness insults Sonny and even by fits to tear down "Cape Coalwood."

References