{"title":"Homer H Hickam","description":"\u003cp\u003eExplore the inspiring world of Homer Hickam, famed for his memoir *Rocket Boys* and the Coalwood series. Discover tales of perseverance, small-town dreams, and reaching for the stars. Start your adventure here.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"torpedo-junction-book-homer-h-hickam-jr-9781557503626","title":"Torpedo Junction","description":"In 1942 German U-boats turned the shipping lanes off Cape Hatteras into a sea of death.  Cruising up and down the U.S. eastern seaboard, they sank 259 ships, littering the waters with cargo and bodies. As astonished civilians witnessed explosions from American beaches, fighting men dubbed the area \"\"Torpedo Junction.\"\" And while the U.S. Navy failed to react, a handful of Coast Guard sailors scrambled to the front lines. Outgunned and out-manoeuvred, they heroically battled the deadliest fleet of submarines ever launched. Never was Germany closer to winning the war.  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And \u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e called \u003cb\u003eThe Coalwood Way\u003c\/b\u003e, Hickam's follow-up to \u003cb\u003eOctober Sky\u003c\/b\u003e, a heartwarmer ... truly beautiful and haunting. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNow Homer Hickam continues his extraordinary story with \u003cb\u003eSky of Stone\u003c\/b\u003e, dazzling us with exquisite storytelling as he takes us back to that remarkable small town we first came to know and love in \u003cb\u003eOctober Sky\u003c\/b\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the summer of '61, Homer Sonny Hickam, a year of college behind him, was dreaming of sandy beaches and rocket ships. But before Sonny could reach the seaside fixer-upper where his mother was spending the summer, a telephone call sends him back to the place he thought he had escaped, the gritty coal-mining town of Coalwood, West Virginia. There, Sonny's father, the mine's superintendent, has been accused of negligence in a man's death--and the townspeople are in conflict over the future of the town. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSonny's mother, Elsie, has commanded her son to spend the summer in Coalwood to support his father. But within hours, Sonny realizes two things: His father, always cool and distant with his second son, doesn't want him there ... and his parents' marriage has begun to unravel. For Sonny, so begins a summer of discovery--of love, betrayal, and most of all, of a brooding mystery that threatens to destroy his father and his town. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCut off from his college funds by his father, Sonny finds himself doing the unimaginable: taking a job as a track-laying man, the toughest in the mine. Moving out to live among the miners, Sonny is soon dazzled by a beautiful older woman who wants to be the mine's first female engineer. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAnd as the days of summer grow shorter, Sonny finds himself changing in surprising ways, taking the first real steps toward adulthood. But it's a journey he can make only by peering into the mysterious heart of Coalwood itself, and most of all, by unraveling the story of a man's death and a father's secret. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003cb\u003eSky of Stone\u003c\/b\u003e, Homer Hickam looks down the corridors of his past with love, humor, and forgiveness, brilliantly evoking a close-knit community where everyone knows everything about each other's lives--except the things that matter most. \u003cb\u003eSky of Stone\u003c\/b\u003e is a memoir that reads like a novel, mesmerizing us with rich language, narrative drive, and sheer storytelling genius.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49543184122129,"sku":"GOR003394705","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49756106785041,"sku":"CIN0385335229G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50922712301841,"sku":"CIN0385335229VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53069757448465,"sku":"CIN0385335229A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0385335229.jpg?v=1751039699"},{"product_id":"coalwood-way-book-homer-h-hickam-9780385335164","title":"The Coalwood Way","description":"From the #1 bestselling author of October Sky comes this rich, unforgettable tale. With the same dazzling storytelling that distinguished his first memoir, Homer Hickam takes us deeper into the soul of his West Virginia hometown at a moment when its unique way of life is buffeted by forces of time and change. \u003cbr\u003eIt is fall 1959. Homer Sonny Hickam and his fellow Rocket Boys are in their senior year at Big Creek High, and the town of Coalwood finds itself at a painful crossroads. \u003cbr\u003eThe strains can be felt within the Hickam home, where Homer Sr. struggles to save the mine, and his wife, Elsie, is feeling increasingly isolated from both her family and the townspeople. Sonny, despite a blossoming relationship with a local girl, finds his own mood darkened by an unexplainable sadness. \u003cbr\u003eThen, with the holidays approaching, trouble at the mine and the arrival of a beautiful young outsider bring unexpected changes in both the Hickam family and the town of Coalwood ... as this luminous memoir moves toward its poignant conclusion.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49545955246353,"sku":"GOR002095248","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49907719569681,"sku":"CIN0385335164G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49984906428689,"sku":"CIN0385335164VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52457287385361,"sku":"GOR014528743","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53024958841105,"sku":"CIN0385335164A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0385335164.jpg?v=1751357624"},{"product_id":"rocket-boys-book-homer-h-hickam-9781841150154","title":"Rocket Boys","description":"Three years in the life of Homer `Sonny’ Hickam, from the moment he sees the Sputnik satellite overhead in West Virginia to his successful launch of a prizewinning rocket.             In 1957 in Coalwood, West Virginia, a town dominated by the black steel towers of the mine and the coal waggons, for a fourteen year old boy there are two routes in life: a football scholarship to college or a life underground. \"Sonny\" Hickam, the mine superintendent’s younger son, is too small for the football team. But his destiny is altered when the town turns out to watch the Soviet Sputnik satellite pass overhead. From that moment, Homer Hickam and his friends determine that they will form the Big Creek Missle Agency and build an American rocket. This is the true story of the boys’ adventures from the moment their first rocket, Auk 1, destroys the garden fence and the lovingly tended roses. Supported only by a tolerant mother and a father who turns a literally blind eye, Sonny gradually entrances the entire town to support his enterprise, which eventually is entered for the National Science Fair. 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