Rocket Boys (also published as October Sky), by Homer Hickam

NOTE: In  honor of the 50th anniversary of the United States' first men on the moon, my book groups are reading about space.

People

Homer and Elsie Hickam – parents Jim – brother, football star in high school Homer “Sonny” Big Creek Missile Agency (BCMA): Homer Quentin – from Bartley, thought Homer had leadership skills Roy Lee Sherman O’Dell Billy – joined group later School: Dorothy Plank – Homer’s high school crush Buck - football player, tormented Homer Valentine Carmina Emily Sue Miss Riley – chemistry teacher The Great Six – teachers in grades 1 - 6 Coalwood Mine: General Superintendents: Van Dyke, Fuller, Bundini Mr. Isaac Bykovski – welder at mine, made parts for BCMA Leon Ferro – made parts for BCMA Mr. Dubonnut – union leader Jake Mosby – junior engineer Tag Farmer – constable, hired by Van Dyke Basil Oglethorpe – writer for McDowell County Banner Rev. Lanier Geneva Eggers – prostitute, saved as infant by Homer Sr. Dr. Wernher von Braun

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from paperback edition of Rocket Boys.

1. Discuss the importance of failure to the boys’ success.  According to Quentin, “Failure, after all, just added to our body of knowledge” (page 71).
2. Discuss Homer Sr. and Elsie’s parenting of Homer and Jim.  Would Homer’s life have been different without the encouragement of his mother?
3. Discuss Homer’s father.  How did your concept of him change as the story progressed?   On the positive side he started to help the BCMA, had saved Geneva as an infant at a risk to himself and had taught himself calculus from a book for his job.  On the negative side he sent Mr. Bykovski back into the mine after he helped the BCMA which led to him being killed and he would not go see a rocket launch.
4. Discuss Homer’s reaction to the mine accident in chapter 18.   His dad lost an eye, Mr. Bykovski was killed, and his mother told him he was selfish (page 246).   Afterwards Homer thought, “The worst thing I had ever felt in my life had taken control of me.  I felt: nothing” (page 250).
5. Why was Mr. Bykovski willing to risk his job to help Homer and his friends make the rocket?
6. Discuss Rev. Lanier’s sermon in chapter 7.  When he started, he was preaching about sons not respecting their fathers, and Homer thought it was meant to chastise the Rocket Boys.  But then he said, “These boys, and we all know I’m talking about our very own rocket boys, are dreaming great dreams.  They should be helped, not stifled” (page 106).  Homer felt the Great Six had influenced Rev. Lanier.  Why was the company so against the rocket boys’ experiments?
7. Homer Sr. was blamed for the football team’s suspension for one year (page 115).   This was a tragedy for boys such as Buck who had no other hope of attending college.  How did you feel about this?  Was it fair to punish the boys?
8. The boys had to work for everything they needed.  For example, Mr. Van Dyke sold them old phones they were trying to steal and did not tell their parents because it was a “business deal.”  Mr. Bykovski taught them to weld instead of just making what they needed.  How might things have been different if they were just given what they needed?  What did the boys gain from these experiences?
9. Why did Dorothy Plank keep inviting Homer over to study but rebuffed his romantic advances?
10. At a school assembly, Emily Sue observed that everyone liked Homer because he liked himself compared to his brother, Jim, who was “trying to find someone who will like him for who he is, not because he’s a big football star” (page 85).  Do you think this was a correct assessment of the two boys?  Did you think Jim was that insecure with himself?
11. At one point, Homer reflected that “learning something, no matter how complex, wasn’t hard when I had a reason to want to know it” (page 143).   Can you relate this to anytime you had or wanted to learn something?

*****

First Semester Success, 2nd edition, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available as an eBook and hard copy from amazon.com and a hard copy from wordassociation.com.   Click on the upper right link.

The Wright Brothers, by David McCullough

NOTE: In honor of the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's walk on the moon, my book groups are reading about space.   Wilbur and Orville Wright started it all in 1903!

December 17, 1903 “Their flights that morning were the first ever in which a piloted machine took off under its own power into the air in full flight, sailed forward with no loss of speed, and landed at a point as high as that from which it started” (page 107)

Wilbur Wright Orville Wright Katherine Wright Bishop Milton Wright – father Susan Koerner Wright - mother, deceased Lorin and Reuchlin – brothers Carrie Kayler – housekeeper Oliver Crook Haugh – threw bat that injured Wilbur, became notorious murderer Paul Lawrence Dunbar – poet, high school friend, African American, first published in West Side News, became nationally known Charles Taylor – managed bicycle shop William J. Tate – postmaster at Kitty Hawk, NC Octave Chanute – civil engineer, trusted advisor Otto Lilienthal – German glider enthusiast, published unreliable data

Timeline: 1889 – Orville started printing local newspaper, West Side News 1891 – Ended newspaper, concentrated on printing business 1893 – opened Wright Cycle Exchange 1899 – Wilbur wrote Smithsonian asking for books on subject of flight 1900 – Wilbur flew manned flights at Kill Devil Hills 1903 – first piloted flight under own power 1908 – test flights in France and US 1908 – September, first death in plane accident

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from hardback edition of book.

1. Because of the bat injury thrown by Oliver Haugh, Wilbur did not go to Yale and instead spent three years at home reading.  How would history have been different if he was not injured?
2. A friend commented that, when growing up, Wilbur and Orville had no special advantage. Wilbur disagreed and said, “…the greatest thing in our favor was growing up in a family where there was always much encouragement to intellectual curiosity” (page 18).  How was this important in their lives?
3. Discuss the importance of reading to the brothers’ success.   Their father “heartily championed the limitless value of reading” and “Between formal education at school and informal education at home, it would seem he put more value on the later” (page 17).  How did this shape the brothers’ success?
4. How has reading impacted your life?
5. How were the brothers able to maintain their faith in what they were doing for so many years? How did they keep going despite so many setbacks? 
6. Through everything, how did the brothers maintain their friendship and collaboration?  For example, when the plane arrived damaged in France due to rough handling by customs inspectors, Wilbur blamed Orville but Orville “knowing the stress his brother was under, made no issue of the matter” (page 163).
7. How instrumental were the other people (Katherine, Charles Taylor, William Tate) in their success?  What part did each play?  Could they have been successful without one or more of them?
8. Were you surprised at the end that Orville and Katherine relationship was broken due to Katherine’s marriage at age 58 to Henry Haskell?   Why do you think Orville reacted this way?
9. Why were they so ignored by the American press and government?  When the editor of The Dayton Daily News was asked why his paper did not notice the important thing happening so close-by he said, “I guess the truth is that we were just plain dumb” (page 116).  The first accurate story was in Gleaning in Bee Culture in early 1904, but the article was rejected by Scientific American in January 1905.
10. Wilbur and Orville had no idea the role aviation would play in war.   Do you think they would have persevered if they had known what death and destruction planes would cause in the future?
11. What do you think they would have thought about space exploration? 

*****

First Semester Success, 2nd edition, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available as an eBook and hard copy from amazon.com and hard copy from Word Association.  Click on the upper right link.