The #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Rocket Boys/October Sky is the true story of Homer "Sonny" Hickam, Jr., a boy from the mining town of Coalwood, West Virginia. In 1957, when Sonny was just 14 years old, Sputnik raced across the Appalachian sky. It left in its wake one boy's desire to join the space race, a dream that he ardently pursued with the help (and sometimes hindrance) of the people in the unique little town of his youth.

Rocket Boys/October Sky offers readers --- including parents, teaching professionals, school administrators, and childcare-givers --- a way to teach and foster the concepts of hope, passion, confidence, self-realization, and the power of following a dream. The book reminds all of us that to simply dream is not enough. We should live our dreams, too.

Rocket Boys was the basis for the major motion picture October Sky from Universal Studios.