Rocket Boys — Content Guide for Parents
Found in this book
- Scary contentBrief
- ReligionBrief
- ProfanityBrief
- Sexual contentBrief
- Gender rolesSupportingTraditional roles, Challenges traditional roles
Not found
- Violence
- Race & culture
- Climate
- Gender & orientation
Content themes
Factual summary of themes present in this book. No opinion — just the facts.
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Summaries and source quotes for every theme.
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Religion
PRESENTContains references to prayer and church attendance. A minister character plays a supporting role in two chapters.
About this book
“A message of hope in an age of cynicism. . . . Perhaps we all have something to learn from a half-dozen boys who dared to reject all limitations . . . and resolved to send dreams roaring to the sky.”—The San Diego Union-Tribune
It was 1957, the year Sputnik raced across the Appalachian sky, and the small town of Coalwood, West Virginia, was slowly dying.
Faced with an uncertain future, Homer Hickam nurtured a dream: to send rockets into outer space. The introspective son of the mine’s superintendent and a mother determined to get him out of Coalwood forever, Homer fell in with a group of misfits who learned not only how to turn scraps of metal into sophisticated rockets but how to sustain their hope in a town that swallowed its men alive.
As the boys began to light up the tarry skies with their flaming projectiles and dreams of glory, Coalwood, and the Hickams, would never be the same.
With the grace of a natural storyteller, NASA engineer Homer Hickam paints a warm, vivid portrait of the harsh West Virginia mining town of his youth, evoking a time of innocence and promise, when anything was possible. Lush and lyrical, Rocket Boys is a uniquely American memoir: A powerful, luminous story of coming of age at the end of the 1950s, of a mother’s love and a father’s fears, and of growing up and getting out.
Frequently asked questions
Is Rocket Boys appropriate for a 7-year-old?
The mining town faces real dangers such as a cave-in and a mine where men sometimes died, and the first rocket blasts frightened townspeople. The narrator writes about a plan that ends up "where God wants you to be", and the teacher's guide treats this as an underlying theme about destiny.
Does Rocket Boys have violence?
Not found in the sources we checked.
Does Rocket Boys have scary content?
Found (Brief): The mining town faces real dangers such as a cave-in and a mine where men sometimes died, and the first rocket blasts frightened townspeople.
Does Rocket Boys have religion?
Found (Brief): The narrator writes about a plan that ends up "where God wants you to be", and the teacher's guide treats this as an underlying theme about destiny.
Does Rocket Boys have race & culture?
Not found in the sources we checked.
Does Rocket Boys have profanity?
Found (Brief): The book includes a few mild swear words, such as townspeople calling the boys "those damn rocket boys".
Does Rocket Boys have climate?
Not found in the sources we checked.
Does Rocket Boys have sexual content?
Found (Brief): The author says the book has some implied high-school sex, which is hinted at rather than shown.
Does Rocket Boys have gender roles?
Found (Supporting, Traditional roles, Challenges traditional roles): The story touches on expectations for boys and women, such as football heroes being prized, a non-athletic boy being teased, and strong mining-town women who want a better life for their children.
Does Rocket Boys have gender & orientation?
Not found in the sources we checked.
