Week of 9/14

Right now I am reading Rocket Boys for Biology and English. Another name for the book (and the name of the movie based on the book) is October Sky. I actually went to a presentation thing by Homer Hickam Jr. (the author), and he told us that if you took all the letters from Rocket Boys and mixed them around, you could make the words October Sky. Hmm...interesting. He also talked a lot about his adventures as a NASA engineer, scuba instructor and consultant of aerospace projects. Of course I'm just reading it for credit in class, but it actually is an interesting book.

It's a memior by Homer Hickam Jr., and is all about living in a mine town, and how he was destined to work in the old mine until he won the science fair and got a scholarship to collage. I think it's really great writing, and so far I'm about halfway done. The main character is Homer, and he is in love with Dorthey Plunk. His friends (Roy Lee, O'Dell, Sherman, Billy and Quintin) are all very interested in Rockets and such, and decided to make a club called the Big Creek Missile Agency (BCMA), and began experimenting building rockets, and making powdery concoctions to make them soar into the sky. All of the boys' teachers (The Great Six) want them to put their project on rockets into the science fair, and at first they are hesitant. Over time, they find a big empty space where they can launch their rockets, and with scrap supplies make a launch pad and a little hut to hide in and watch the rockets after they light the fuse. After they got a few good rockets (some flying to 1500 feet), they decided to post announcements of when they were launching their latest rockets. Soon they got at least 50 people to come and watch them shoot them off, including their teachers and mechanics that helped them build all of their rockets in Homer's father's mine workshops. They get into trouble at times, but for the most part they are really successful for just being high school boys. That's about as far into the story as I am right now, and I am eager to read more!

Before I started reading Rocket Boys, I was reading The Host by Stephanie Meyers, but I had to pause that so I could get Rocket Boys done in time. I was about halfway into the book, and it is AMAZING so far, although it's a bit hard to get into at first. It's about aliens rading the earth, and nearly taking over. I don't know if they actually DO take over since I haven't finished yet, but I was at a pretty exciting point in the story when I stopped reading. The main character is a girl named Melenie. The aliens take over by using the humans as hosts, and are put into the human bodys and then taking over the human. It's a very interesting read...