A gleaming light had shined itself across the stars, the eyes of many Coalwood residents looking to the sky above them. Most were mumbling their lips off, mostly about how dangerous or rather foolish it was to have the Russian’s movement fly past them and they not do a thing. Everyone but him, the world was nothing at the moment, it was just him. Just him and his eyes staring at his great inspiration, Sputnik. Many people brought him down, many people made him want to give up—and he almost did. With these hardships and struggles in a small town in West Virginia, “Sonny” makes his way through them all and blasts off into a star of influentuality. Homer H. Hickam Jr’s “Rocket Boys” is a great memoir and in general, a great book all around. A true motivation, all in all.

This book itself is valuable to most if they can get influenced and motivated easily. The author, Homer, is the lead male along with his friends and nonetheless some of his family. His purpose is to entertain, honestly, and if not that—then to inform, to inspire; to aspire. With this shine of hope that the book radiated off, you could grab it and shape-shift it into what you want your future to lead to, but in hopefully a more simple way. In this content, the basic idea or concept is to do what inspires you greatly and learn about it, be involved in it, and grasp it. Its concepts are dealing with failure and success, some in vise versa to be respectfully stated. Factually speaking, it deals with Man vs. self, where Homer fights himself and his own feelings throughout the entire story.

My evaluation for this book is that it’s great, and it kept me wanting more each time I walked into my classroom to read more and more. The more I read, the more I was sucked in and I just wasn’t expecting what I received. It was amazing, and I advise strongly that those with an interest for someone growing up in a small town and becoming an amazing person would absolutely adore this book.

To sum it all together, this is a great book in my own views, and if what I stated meets such interests, you should find yourself the book and take your time to read it!