The true story of Homer Hickam Jr., a high school student in rural West Virginia, who seemed destined to repeat his father's harsh life in the coal mines, until he turned his attention to the skies.

Homer Hickam, the introspective son of a mine superintendent and a mother determined to get him out of Coalwood, West Virginia forever, nurtures a dream to send rockets into outer space--an ambition that changes his life and the lives of everyone living in Coalwood in 1957.

Two teenage sleuths help their detective father search for a famous rocket scientist whose disappearance endangers the launching of the Firebird Rocket.

The Apollo 11 astronauts have prepared carefully for their attempt to be the first men to land on the moon. The young narrator of this book has prepared carefully, too: he explains the design of the spacecraft, the flight from the earth to the moon, and the drama of touching down--while shadowing the astronaut's voyage with one of his own.

Elsie Lavender and Homer Hickam (the father of the author) were high school classmates in the West Virginia coalfields, graduating just as the Great Depression began. When Homer asked for her hand, Elsie instead headed to Orlando where she sparked with a dancing actor named Buddy Ebsen (yes, that Buddy Ebsen). But when Buddy headed for New York, Elsie's dreams of a life with him were crushed and eventually she found herself back in the coalfields,...