Fiction_L Archives Rocket Boys read-a-likes Dates: 5/20/02,4:43 PM  through  5/21/02,10:00 AM  (6 postings) Search for: Select one or more indexes to search: 2011-current     2009-2010     2004-2008    1995-2003    (Matches from each index will be displayed separately in the results page.) Return to May 2002 thread menu   |   Fiction_L Archives Menu

FROM: [removed]@linc.lib.il.us
REC'D: 5/20/02, 4:43 PM

I would appreciate any suggestions for read-a-likes for Rocket Boys
by Homer Hickam. My patron enjoys the non-fiction and
scientific/technical slant to this book.

Thanks very much.

Pam Dralle
Bloomingdale (IL) Public Library

FROM: Andrew Smith <[removed]@mail.wrl.org>
REC'D: 5/20/02, 4:53 PM

Henry Petroski's newest, _Paperboy: confessions of a future engineer_,
sounds like it has a lot in common with Rocket Boys; his other works, like
_The Pencil_, _The Evolution of Useful Things_, and _Invention by Design_,
might also be of interest.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Andrew Smith [removed]@mail.wrl.org
Readers Services Librarian
Williamsburg Regional Library (757) 259-4050
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On Mon, 20 May 2002 [removed]@linc.lib.il.us wrote:

> I would appreciate any suggestions for read-a-likes for Rocket Boys
> by Homer Hickam. My patron enjoys the non-fiction and
> scientific/technical slant to this book.
>
> Thanks very much.
>
> Pam Dralle
> Bloomingdale (IL) Public Library
>
>
> ......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
> Everything Fiction_L: http://www.webrary.org/rs/flmenu.html
>

FROM: Barry Trott <[removed]@mail.wrl.org>
REC'D: 5/20/02, 5:35 PM

A couple of possibilities would be John McPhee's books "The Deltoid
Pumpkin Seed" which is about designing and building an experimental
aircraft and "The Curve of Binding Energy" which is a biography of
physicist Ted Taylor, that looks at his work at Los Alamos on the atomic
bomb, as well as his reflections on bomb building and physics. McPhee's
"The Control of Nature" might also be of interest, looking at what occurs
when technology and nature intersect.

For the technical slant on things, another possible writer would be Henry
Petroski ("Invention by design: how engineers get from thought to
thing;" "Engineers of dreams: great bridge builders and the spanning of
America;" "The evolution of useful things"; "The book on the bookshelf").
Petroski writes in a very accessible way about technology and society.

Barry

*******************************************************************************
Barry Trott 7770 Croaker Rd.
Adult Services Director Williamsburg VA 23188
Williamsburg Regional Library Phone: 757-259-4053
[removed]@mail.wrl.org FAX: 757-259-4079
http://www.wrl.org/bookweb/
*******************************************************************************

On Mon, 20 May 2002 [removed]@linc.lib.il.us wrote:

> I would appreciate any suggestions for read-a-likes for Rocket Boys
> by Homer Hickam. My patron enjoys the non-fiction and
> scientific/technical slant to this book.
>
> Thanks very much.
>
> Pam Dralle
> Bloomingdale (IL) Public Library
>
>
> ......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
> Everything Fiction_L: http://www.webrary.org/rs/flmenu.html
>

FROM: Spencer Ms Martha <[removed]@usmc-mccs.org>
REC'D: 5/21/02, 7:42 AM

How about the other two books he wrote later, both memoirs The Coalwood Way
and Sky of Stone.
He also wrote a novel about the space program called Back to the Moon.

Martha Spencer

-----Original Message-----
From: [removed]@linc.lib.il.us [[removed]@linc.lib.il.us]
Sent: Monday, May 20, 2002 2:37 PM
To: Fiction_L
Subject: Rocket Boys read-a-likes

I would appreciate any suggestions for read-a-likes for Rocket Boys
by Homer Hickam. My patron enjoys the non-fiction and
scientific/technical slant to this book.

Thanks very much.

Pam Dralle
Bloomingdale (IL) Public Library

FROM: "christine jeffords" <[removed]@hotmail.com>
REC'D: 5/21/02, 8:24 AM

You could begin with Tom Swift, if you can find him. This early-20th-C.
(1910-41) series by "Victor Appleton" (Edward Stratemeyer) was much loved in
its day and focuses on a youthful inventor; there are 40 volumes total.
Stratemeyer assumed the pseudonym of "Victor Appleton II" to write 36
volumes about "Tom Swift, Jr.," who went into space; these are more recent
(1954-81) and might be easier to find.

Most of Robert Heinlein's early work might fit. This would include such
books as "Between Planets," "Rocket Ship Galileo," "The Rolling Stones,"
"Have Space Suit, Will Travel," "Starman Jones," "Orphans of the Sky,"
"Citizen of the Galaxy," "Farmer in the Sky," "Red Planet," "The Star
Beast," "Space Cadet," "Time for the Stars," "Tunnel in the Sky," and
"Podkayne of Mars."

_________________________________________________________________
Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
http://www.hotmail.com

FROM: Dennis Lien <[removed]@tc.umn.edu>
REC'D: 5/21/02, 10:00 AM

At 12:55 PM 5/21/02 +0000, you wrote:
>You could begin with Tom Swift, if you can find him. This early-20th-C.
>(1910-41) series by "Victor Appleton" (Edward Stratemeyer) was much loved in
>its day and focuses on a youthful inventor; there are 40 volumes total.
>Stratemeyer assumed the pseudonym of "Victor Appleton II" to write 36
>volumes about "Tom Swift, Jr.," who went into space; these are more recent
>(1954-81) and might be easier to find.

About two dozen of the original TOM SWIFT series are freely available
online; check the On-Line Books Page at

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/

By and large the "Tom Swift Jr." series are indeed more common, but
with are exceptions--the last three or four apparently had small print
runs and are arguably scarcer than any of the original series. (I'm
still lacking one myself.)

There are *three* mutually incompatable modern serieses, though,
not one. As you say, the original series ran to 40 volumes
(1910-1941). The second series, as by "Victor Appleton II,"
featured Tom Swift, Jr. (and his father and his father's inventions
appeared also at times), was published by Grosset and Dunlap in
hc (with scattered later pb reprints from Tempo), and ran to 33
volumes, 1954 to 1971. Later, the name was revived for a series
of 11 books, 1981 to 1984, published in trade pb by Wanderer
Books (and, unlike the previous ones, written by real sf writers)
in which Tom Swift is involved in future-setting space adventures
(and is supposedly "the" Tom Swift--no mention, I think, of
earlier ancestors of same name or their backstory). Still more
recent was a 14-volume series in mass market pb from Archway,
1991-1993, two of them co-starring The Hardy Boys, most by sf
authors). I haven't read any of these and don't know if they
are "backward compatable" with the first two series or not (but
suspect not).

So there are actually at least 98 books split among four serieses.
(And apparently two written but never published for Wanderer,
which would bring it to an even 100.)

Stratemeyer created the characters and prepared outlines, but
did not do the actual writing; most of the first series books were
actually written (from outlines) by Howard Garis, who was among
other things also the creator and author of Uncle Wiggily.

Figures, dates, etc. above doublechecked from this site:

http://www.web-span.com/raven43/pers2.htm

Not having read THE ROCKET BOYS, I don't know if any of the Swift
titles would be good readalikes or not. But they're all very
juvenile and I had the impression ROCKET BOYS was intended for
an older audience.

Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // [removed]@tc.umn.edu

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