Dimensions
144 x 197 x 24mm
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.
As the boys' 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.
Previously published as 'Rocket Boys', this is a perceptive, funny and at times painful picture of a young boy who - against all odds - grows up to be a NASA scientist.
