The Coalwood Way

The Coalwood Way
Author Homer Hickam, Jr.
Country United States
Language English
Genre Memoir
Published 2000
Preceded by October Sky
Followed by Sky of Stone

The Coalwood Way (2000) is the second memoir in a series of three, by Homer Hickam, Jr. The Coalwood Way is a story of the Rocket Boys and Coalwood. Homer calls it an "equal," rather than a sequel because the story happens during the same timeframe as the first book. Today, it is one of the most often picked community/library reads in the United States. It is also studied in many school systems around the world. The Coalwood Way (2000) is followed by Sky of Stone (2002), and preceded by October Sky (1998).

Plot summary

It is now 1959. The Rocket Boys are still perfecting their handmade rockets and, as high school seniors, preparing for their futures. Homer is determined to prove to his father that he is college material, but with the mine perilously close to running out of coal and shutting down, the prospects for the future of any of Coalwood's children is bleak. Miners have lost their jobs and homes, public services have been cut to residences in the outlying areas, and Homer's father is faced with initiating an extremely dangerous and controversial new mining method in order to save the town and the mine from oblivion. Homer's mother feels increasingly cut off from her husband and the townspeople as her role as the mine superintendent's wife places her at odds with the wives of the union workers.

Optimism is hard to come by in the bleak winter months of the last year of the 1950s, and Homer is overcome with an overriding sense of gloom with his future so uncertain. The faith and hope of these hard working people, however, form the basis for an uplifting memoir, as Sonny and his friends resurrect the Spirit of Christmas when Coalwood need is the most.

Characters

Homer "Sonny" Hickam, Jr. is the fun main kid and narrator of the story. He is 8 years old at the beginning of the story, and serves as the unspoken leader of the Rocket Boys. He is very nearsighted and requires glasses. Jim is his star athlete brother, and Homer Hickam, the mine superintendent, is his dad. Elsie Lavender Hickam is Homer Sr.'s wife and their mom.

Sherman Siers has a physically weakened left leg as a result of polio, but does not let it slow him down. He is also the most observant and practical member of the team.

Basil Oglethorpe is the writer of a small newspaper called the McDowell County Banner. He is in charge of the BCMA's publicity.

Book review

In his best-selling memoir, Rocket Boys (which became the 1999 movie October Sky), former NASA engineer Hickam looked back at the mining town of Coalwood, WV, when the 1957 ascent of Sputnik prompted Sonny and his teenage pals to launch their own rockets and aim at the stars. This sequel is set in 1959, when Sonny is a high school senior, still sending up rockets at "Cape Coalwood," at local launches that became full-scale social events with numerous spectators: "Even the Big Creek cheerleaders came, dressed in full uniform." Hickam digs deeper into his own family life, recalling an ambivalent relationship with his father, the superintendent of the local mine: "My dad was, in many ways, [a] general, plotting strategy and tactics against an unyielding foe, the mine itself." Hearing the constant miner's cough in her own house, Hickam's mother, Elsie, wants to leave the coal dust-covered community for the "fresh, clean air" of Myrtle Beach, since "she knew very well lung spots never got smaller, only bigger," but Homer Sr. is determined to stay and save the mine. Amid the resulting household tension, Sonny suffers from an inexplicable sadness, despite his growing relationship with a local girl and his various science and writing projects. His recollections are occasionally reminiscent of the youthful exploits in tales by Jean Shepherd and Ray Bradbury, but Hickam's voice is his own. Recalling a lost era, the transition between small-town life and the dawning of the new technological age, he brings his American hometown to life with vivid images, appealing characters and considerable literary magic.

References

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