Name _____________________________ October Sky Study Guide Questions
Respond to each with a minimum of 1-2 complete sentences.
Chapter 1:
1. Describe at least 3 strengths and 3 weaknesses of the town of Coalwood,
West Virginia.
2. How does Sonny feel about his father? Explain.
3. Compare and contrast Coalwood to your hometown. (Similarities and
differences)
4. Describe the setting (time and place) of the novel. Why is the setting so
significant?
5. From whose point of view is the story told? How is this effective?
Chapter 2:
1. Describe a national event as significant as Sputnik that has occurred in your
lifetime.
2. Are the students described “typical” of high school students? Explain.
3. Why do Jim and Homer Sr. appear to dislike Sonny? Explain.
Chapter 3:
1. In what way does the conflict between Elsie and Homer Sr. benefit Sonny?
Explain.
2. How are the building of a rocket and the acquisition of education connected in
Elsie’s mind? Explain.
3. Compare and contrast the different parenting styles of Homer Sr. and Elsie.
Chapter 4:
1. When Big Creek High School is not allowed to play in the state football
championship, what are the different reactions? Describe at least 2.
2. What conflict(s) left over from the past seem to make his father’s feelings
toward John Dubonnet especially bitter?
3. In Mr. Dubonnet’s opinion, what changes have made modern coal mining
unhealthier than old-fashioned mining used to be?
Chapter 5:
1. Compare and contrast Quentin and most of the other students at Big Creek
High School. (Consider: Despite their differences, how are his circumstances
similar to others?)
2. Why does Mr. Dubonnet believe that Sonny should leave Coalwood after high
school? Explain.
3. What do you think motivates Dorothy to ask Sonny to her home to study?
Chapter 6:
1. How does Emily Sue assess Sonny’s, Jim’s, and Dorothy’s characters?
2. In what way does Mr. Bykovsky assist the Big Creek Missile Agency? Why do
you think he wants to help Sonny?
3. What happens with the launch of Auk IV that gets Sonny into trouble?
Chapter 7:
1. How did Sonny, his mother, and Mr. Bykovsky react to his father’s
reassignment of Mr. Bykovsky?
2. How did the Great Six teachers work behind the scenes to influence change in
Coalwood?
3. What was the purpose of Reverend Lanier’s sermon? To whom was it
directed?
Chapter 8:
1. How were the two main subjects of Mr. Turner’s speech to the high school
linked?
2. Why does Sonny’s father look at Sonny with “some confusion, almost as if he
had never looked at him before”?
3. What does Sonny learn about his parents’ relationship from eavesdropping on
their behavior before sleep?
Chapter 9:
1. Compare and contrast Jake Moseby and Sonny. Although there are many
differences between them, why did they become friends?
2. How did the relationship between Sonny’s parents change while on vacation?
3. What is the most difficult thing Sonny’s father says he has ever learned? Is he
simply referring to thermodynamics? Why?
Chapter 10:
1. How does Mr. Van Dyke settle the issue of theft of the telephone equipment?
2. Why is this school year different from others?
3. Which of the experiences in this chapter do you think is most important to
Sonny? Why? Explain.
Chapter 11:
1. What is “rocket candy” made of?
2. What are Sonny’s father’s motives in taking Sonny on a tour of the mine?
3. Why is Sonny’s mother so angry with Sonny’s father for taking Sonny into the
mine? Explain.
Chapter 12:
1. How is Sonny able to obtain the materials needed to build the Auk XIV?
2. What does Sonny ask Mr. Bykovsky?
3. What do Quentin and Sonny agree on regarding their rocket experiments after
the launch of Auk XV?
Chapter 13:
1. How does Sonny nearly die in sledding home?
2. What does Sonny learn from Geneva Eggers that gives him a larger and more
positive picture of his father than he previously had?
3. What story does his father later tell him about Geneva Eggers that again
changes the simplistic way he has thought of his father to this point?
Chapter 14:
1. What principle behind the De Laval nozzle made it a more efficient model than
the ones the boys had been building previously?
2. What subject would the boys need to learn to build a De Laval nozzle?
3. How are his father’s and Sonny’s stories paralleled in this chapter?
Chapter 15:
1. How did Mr. Hartsfield believe Big Creek High School was regarded? Who
else believed this was how the school was seen?
2. How did Sonny’s father indirectly help Sonny teach himself calculus?
3. Although Sonny valued Quentin’s friendship and his membership in the BCMA,
was Sonny also aware of Quentin’s less admirable traits? Give at least one
example of Quentin displaying such a trait.
Chapter 16:
1. Explain Quentin’s and Mr. Caton’s difference of opinion concerning design
changes. What made each think he was right?
2. What actually pushed Sonny into entering the science fair?
3. Describe the dynamics of Sonny’s family up to this point in the novel. Explain
the relationship of each parent to each son, the relationship between the
brothers, and the relationship between the parents.
Chapter 17:
1. What kind of music did Ed Johnson and his devotees prefer?
2. Describe the changes in mood Sonny experienced on the night he went to the
Dugout. How did he feel on the way to the Dugout and while he was first there?
How did he feel when he saw Dorothy, when he was with Valentine, and when he
was with Buck?
3. How does the tone of the final scene of this chapter, when Sonny returns
home, compare with the tone of the earlier scenes?
Chapter 18:
1. Why was Sonny so devastated by the death of Mr. Bykovski?
2. Doc said, “Coalwood is no place to be weak, but if you are, keep it to yourself
and get the he-- out of here as soon as you can.” Do you agree or disagree with
this assessment of Coalwood? Support your opinion.
3. What was the worst thing Sonny had ever felt, and what made him feel this
way?
Chapter 19:
1. During his conversation with Miss Riley, what did Sonny mean by “the West
Virginia thing”?
2. There was a change in Sonny after Mr. Bykovsky’s bus pulled out. What was
this change? What caused it?
3. Why do you believe Sonny did not explain to the other boys in the BCMA his
reason for switching from rocket candy to zinc dust and sulfur? Was it because
he did not have time to explain everything, as he told Roy Lee, or was there a
different reason?
Chapter 20:
1. At the beginning of the chapter, what is Sonny’s state of mind due to his
family’s situation?
2. How does the boys’ plan to make money backfire on them?
3. Who comes to their financial rescue? How?
Chapter 21:
1. Why is it necessary to find a binding agent for the zinc-sulfur mixture?
2. What do the boys find as a binding agent, and how does that get them into
trouble?
3. How do the townspeople treat Mr. Fuller, and why?
Chapter 22:
1. Why did the Auk XXIII not achieve the altitude that Sonny had calculated it
would?
2. How are the boys able to afford their continuing rocket construction after Auk
XXIII uses up the last of their funds?
3. Why does Sonny’s father object to John F. Kennedy as a presidential
candidate?
Chapter 23:
1. Why does Sonny get sick and what eventually relieves this illness?
2. What becomes of Pooky and his family?
3. Why does Sonny choose not to have Roy Lee tell him who killed Daisy Mae?
Chapter 24:
1. What kind of suit does Sonny buy initially?
2. Why does John F. Kennedy first draw such a cool response from the crowd?
3. When Emily Sue forces Sonny to buy a more conservative suit, how does he
quietly rebel?
Chapter 25:
1. Whom does Sonny befriend at the fair, and what is their connection?
2. In a conversation with Jake, what does Sonny admit scares him?
3. When Sonny calls home after the nozzles have been stolen, what is the status
of the strike in Coalwood?
Chapter 26:
1. Which of the six rockets they launched goes highest? How high does it go?
2. Why does Sonny’s father’s act of signing the contract with the miners present
itself as an interference with Sonny’s mom’s desire to move to Myrtle Beach?
3. What is ironic about the interaction between Sonny and his father after the
launch of the last rocket?
Epilogue:
1. How does Sonny achieve his dream?
2. What does Sonny find in the box his father left for him?
3. What does Sonny do with what he finds?