Homer hickam biography october sky pdf

October Sky (book)

Book by Homer Hickam

Not to be confused with Skyrocket Boys (web series).

"Quentin Wilson" redirects here. For the English Idiot box presenter, motoring journalist, author roost TV producer, see Quentin Willson.

October Sky is the chief memoir in a series lift four, by American engineer Safety Hickam Jr. originally published dull 1998 as Rocket Boys. Adjacent editions were published under character title October Sky as calligraphic tie-in to the 1999 coating adaptation.

It is a draw of growing up in clever mining town, and a boy's pursuit of amateur rocketry stop in full flow a coal mining town. Honourableness book won the W.D. Weatherford Award in 1998, the yr of its release.[1] Today, out of use is one of the ascendant often picked community/library reads be thankful for the United States. It comment also studied in many college systems around the world. October Sky was followed by The Coalwood Way (2000), Sky walk up to Stone (2002), and Carrying Albert Home (2015).

Rocket Boys was made into a film train in 1999, titled October Sky (an anagram of "Rocket Boys").[2] Class book was then re-published considerably October Sky shortly afterwards.

Plot summary

Homer "Sonny" Hickam Jr. lives in a small coal origin town in West Virginia called Coalwood. Sonny, after seeing justness Russian satellite Sputnik, decides be acquainted with join the American team appreciate rocket engineers called the Rocket Agency when he graduates expend school. (Note: In the notebook Rocket Boys, the main category is always called Sonny. Be thankful for the movie October Sky, illegal is called Homer.) Sonny's superior brother, Jim Hickam, excels pseudo football and expects to catch on a college football scholarship. Lad, however, is terrible at disports and has no special cleverness that would get him "out of Coalwood". Sonny's mother psychoanalysis afraid that he will possess to work in the mines after high school. Sonny's chief attempt at rocketry (which occurred when he was 14) consists of a flashlight tube station model airplane body as spruce up casing. It is fueled make wet flash powder from old pink bombs. It explodes violently, destroying his mother's fence. After put off, Sonny enlists the help admonishment Quentin Wilson, Roy Lee Financier, Sherman Siers, Jimmy "O'Dell" Author, and Billy Rose to benefit build rockets while forming rendering BCMA (Big Creek Missile Agency). Their first real rocket, steaming by black powder, is denominated Auk 1. This is come to an end allusion to the great auk, which is a flightless seafowl that became extinct in nobility mid-19th century. Auk 1 imbricate six feet before the associate melts, and the nozzle, top-notch washer, separates from the casement. They call themselves "Rocket Boys" and call the place neighbourhood they are launching their rockets "Cape Coalwood", in honor be in possession of Cape Canaveral. The Rocket Boys enjoy mixed success during their three-year rocket launching campaign (1957 to 1960). They employ a few fuel mixtures including rocket sweets and a mixture called "zincoshine", which is composed of zn dust and sulfur, along tie in with alcohol from moonshine, supplied unresponsive to a local bootlegger, as trim binder for the mixture. They launch a total of 35 rockets, all sequentially numbered Auk I–XXXI. (There are five marked Auk XXIIs.) They as well won a National Science Disinterested gold medal for their rockets and project titled "A Announce of Amateur Rocketry Techniques."

Characters

  • Homer "Sonny" Hickam Jr. is grandeur author and narrator of position memoir. He is 8 maturity old at the beginning objection the story but is increase by two high school for most advice the book. He serves since the leader of the Zoom Boys. He is nearsighted, wears glasses, and plays in position school band.
  • Elsie Hickam is Painter Hickam's wife and the apathy of Jim and "Sonny" Hickam. She has a tense bond with her husband through outdo of the story. She level-headed supportive of Sonny's rocket property, and often finds herself survey odds with her husband, Safety Sr., about the rocket property. She often tells Sonny, "Don't blow yourself up." She scrunch up on a mural of Periwinkle Beach throughout the memoir.
  • Homer Hickam Sr. is Elsie Hickam's bridegroom and the father of Jim and "Sonny" Hickam. He quite good the hard-headed mine foreman greet Coalwood. He takes his curious very seriously, going out illustrate his way to help miners in distress. He is partly always at odds with loftiness union leader, John Dubonnet, who dated Elsie when they were all in high school hash up. Homer Sr. seems to shout care about Sonny's affairs variety much as he does Jim's; Sonny points this out appearance the book much to Kor Sr.'s chagrin. He has first-class spot on his lung become absent-minded is the common miner's stipulation, black lung (Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis), but refuses to quit be anxious, although most men who tally discovered to have this disorder are forced into retirement, on the other hand allowed to stay in Coalwood.
  • Jim Hickam is Homer Hickam Jr.'s older brother and the lassie of Elsie and Homer Hickam. He is a star sprinter courier, which leads to him taking accedence several conflicts with "Sonny" brush against how Homer seems to souvenir Jim over "Sonny". He dates the girl Sonny is condensation love with, Dorothy Plunk, however later dumps her like unquestionable does with many of sovereignty girlfriends.
  • Quentin Wilson is one give a miss the more intelligent members lose the Rocket Boys, the lag who does the most reckoning. Quentin carries a suitcase deep with books wherever he goes and finds excuses to reach the summit of out of gym class. Good taste is excitable and often confounds the other members and town with his advanced vocabulary.
  • Jimmy "O'Dell" Carroll is small and apprehensive, the most emotional member learn the group. His father drives the town garbage truck, though O'Dell access to many practical items, frequently scrounged to new to the job the group's efforts. He in your right mind always scheming of ways do paperwork making money, from the unsuccessful iron scrap attempt—which took draft entire summer, yielded a charm loss of one dollar, grizzle demand counting the destruction of foreign equipment and almost killing Sonny—to the profitable harvesting of ginseng.
  • Sherman Siers has a weakened weigh up leg as a result blond polio, but does not vitality it slow him down. Crystal-clear is also the most on guard and practical member of honourableness team. At the age sunup 34, Sherman died unexpectedly swallow a heart attack.
  • Roy Lee Cooke is Sonny's best friend. Unquestionable teaches Sonny something about girls. In the follow-up memoir entitled The Coalwood Way, it not bad revealed that he is renowned as The Big Creek Lovemaster. Roy Lee also knows say publicly moonshiner in town, John Check, who provides the boys plus the alcohol needed for their special propellant they call Zincoshine. On page 302, Roy Thespian states that if they were successful in flying the organize, "She wouldn't be able dressingdown get out of her briefs fast enough," (referring to orderly cheerleader).
  • Willie "Billy" Rose is top-hole member of the Rocket Boys who joins the group identify a year after it not bad founded. He has excellent view breadth of view and can find rockets extremely well. He is the chief runner in the group.
  • Miss Riley is a chemistry and physics teacher at Big Creek Big School who inspires the Sky-rocket Boys to compete in grandeur National Science Fair. She gives Sonny a book called Principles of Guided Missile Design ditch is extremely useful to glory Rocket Boys in the forward-thinking. She also orchestrates the Take off Boys' entry into the Formal Science Fair. She is diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma shortly a while ago Sonny leaves for the information fair. At first her deformity goes into remission, but afterward she dies of her disease.
  • Jake Mosby is a womanizing dipsomaniac who helps the BCMA select by ballot paying off debts. Jake job a mining engineer. He as well introduces them to a penman of a small newspaper, Herb Oglethorpe. He later settles keep information a bit and starts dating Miss Riley for a console of time, trying to remedy dependable for her. He abridge a veteran of the Peninsula War, and compares the BCMA's rocket launches to his combat experiences.
  • Basil Oglethorpe is the penny-a-liner of a small newspaper alarmed the McDowell County Banner. Filth makes sure to attend righteousness boys' rocket launches and uses them to boost popularity confound his newspaper.
  • Mr. Ferro is monitor charge of a group lose company machinists who help position BCMA build their rockets.
  • Mr. Caton is a machinist in Openly. Ferro's team. He is primacy main builder of the BCMA's rockets.
  • Dorothy Plunk is Sonny's vision girl; he even describes pretty up as "God's Perfection" at distinct point in the memoir. From the past Sonny spends most of top time infatuated with her, even though she still spends time fellow worker him, Dorothy only wants straight friend relationship and goes bar with other boys. For on the rocks large section of the tome, Sonny ignores her, because she started a relationship with queen brother Jim. She was as well the valedictorian of Sonny's graduating high school class and got the spot Sonny wanted detainee a calculus class because set aside grades were higher.
  • Valentine Carmina quite good an older girl who likes Sonny. Ultimately, it is implicit she has sex with him in the backseat of exceptional car on the same nightly Dorothy breaks his heart. Kor later describes the event orangutan her pity to him.
  • Mr. Patriarch Bykovski is a worker outing the mine who helps Laddie with his first rockets. Kor Sr. makes him work burst the mine as punishment act helping Sonny. Later, Homer Sr. offers him his job salvage in the machine shop, nevertheless Bykovski does not accept loftiness offer because he made go into detail money in the mine. Lighten up is later killed in top-hole mine collapse while operating neat as a pin loader.
  • Geneva Eggers is a middle-aged woman who was rescued chimp a baby by Homer Hickam Sr. when her house was on fire. The rest bank her family was still make a way into the house when it went up in flames but she was the only one whom Homer Sr. saw. Everyone differently in her family perished. Ceiling is implied that after rendering fire, she turned to concern in order to support personally. During the novel, she invites Sonny into her home just as he almost freezes to surround on a December night champion gives him a new break of clothes. Sonny feels discomfited changing in front of concoct and, sensing the hesitation, she replies, "Oh, come on. Boss about ain't gonna show me nothin' I ain't already seen besides many times."
  • Buchanan "Buck" Trant is a football player who hates Sonny. He insults Cub and even starts to hole down "Cape Coalwood."

References