Weekend Reads

Rocket Boys by Homer H. Hickam, Jr.

NASA engineer Homer Hickam grew up in Coalwood, West Virginia. Set in the 1950's and early 60's, Hickam tells his story of the rocket building club he was a member of as a boy. He was inspired to build rockets after being inspired by the launch of Sputnik, the Russian rocket launched on October 4 1957. This was a time of great concern and animosity towards Russia, as well as a time when the scientific horizon was expanding quickly. Anything seemed possible - which led Homer and his friends to go buy some explosives and almost burning down his mother's fence. Rocket Boys is technically a biography, but is really considered a memoir because 1. Hickam admits to taking some "liberties" with the actual events and 2. rather than being a retrospective of his life and career, Hickam focuses on  a very small period of time and builds a beautiful story from it. 

Find it in Biographies in B HICKAM

I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest

May and Libby were more than just best friends; they were also co-creators and an awesome art team. The girls had been creating the world of Princess X, a princess who lived in a haunted house and carried a katana blade like a ninja, from the time they were nine until they were twelve. When Libby's mom drives off of a bridge and Libby's body isn't recovered, May loses her only friend. It's a loss that is twice as hard to take when May discovers that all of Libby's Princess X archive has been destroyed as well. So when Princess X starts appearing in May's life again, it's not just a reminder of her lost friend, but shocking and mysterious. This book is mainly a standard narrative, but there are illustrations and comic panels throughout. The jarring losses that May suffers is reflected in the tone at the beginning of the book, and Princess X is a princess that any little girl can look up to.

Find it in Fiction under F PRI

Change-Up: A Mystery at the World Series by John Feinstein

This October is a bittersweet time for us Pirates fans. While we are (still!) excited about how well our Buccos did this year we already miss having them to cheer on. Why not find a book that combines baseball with a mystery (a natural selection for this spooky time of year!) Stevie and Susan Carol are teen journalists who are covering the World Series. Everyone is excited when Norbert Doyle, a career minor league pitcher, manages a no-hitter in Game 2. When Stevie begins to research Doyle for a feature story, he starts to discover things that make him question what he (or anyone) really knows about Norbert Doyle. 

Find it in Fiction under F FEI