Plainfield area residents looking to blast off into a new book can share the experience with their fellow readers in this year’s Great Read community reading program.

Rocket Boys by Home Hickam Jr., published in 1998, is this year’s choice for the Plainfield area Great Read program, which kicks off at 7 p.m. Feb. 15 at the Joliet Barnes and Noble, 2621 Plainfield Road, with a special chat with the author through Skype video conferencing.

Rocket Boys, a New York Times bestseller and inspiration for the movie October Sky, is a memoir about Hickam’s early fascination with rocketry as a child in the 1960s, when he began creating model rockets using homemade and often dangerous rocket fuel. He later became a rocket scientist for NASA.

The story also delves into Hickam’s personal life, describing his dreams to escape the West Virginian coal mines and soar higher.

The Great Read, which began is 2004, is sponsored by Plainfield School District 202, the Plainfield, Joliet and Fountaindale public libraries, the Joliet-area Barnes and Noble bookstores and through a grant from the Plainfield Foundation for Excellence among others.

In the coming months, readers can gather for book discussions and special programs centered around the book. The Great Read culminates in April with a showing of October Sky, the movie made from Hickam’s book, and programs will be featured on the Great Read’s Web site at www.psd202.org/greatread.

“One of the real goals for the Great Read is to try to find a book that appeals to high school students and adults,” said Ceil Carey, head of the outreach department at the Plainfield Public Library. “We try to come up with really great programs to draw people in, and they will be excited to read and participate in these programs.”

Carey said the themes of rockets and space will get teenagers excited in the book while the story of Hickam’s life also delves deeper as it explores his desire to escape a life in the coal mines and seek his father’s approval in doing so.

Rocket Boys was considered for the Great Read through careful consideration.

“This is a community reading program,” District 202 spokesman Tom Hernandez said. “Our hope every year is that people from throughout the community will be able to participate. We try to find books that people will enjoy but also have meaning, that are accessible to people and speak in some way to the community. We want it to have literary weight.”

Among other programming in the works for the Great Read include book discussions at area libraries, a visit to the Joliet Area Historical Museum to see its permanent space exhibit, a “Readers Theater” selection from Rocket Boys performed by District 202 students and the free public showing of October Sky.

At the Barnes and Noble blast-off event, a Nook e-reader will be given away after the program.

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