These were Homer's two main goals while he was growing up in Coalwood. Although the rockets Valentine wished to see had yet to reach perfection, the fact that they were worthy of her interest convinced Homer that what he was doing was right, even when he felt discouraged by the results of the project itself. He had always assumed that being a football star was the only way to interest young women. Now he knew that was not the case. "Bobby Joe or any of the other boys ever give you any...junk, you come to me" says the beautiful Valentine (141). The young woman's protective instincts make the incident humorous, of course, as Valentine threatens the fiercest member of the football team, named Bobby Joe. But the anecdote also shows how exploring rockets is gaining in social cache, in Homer's world. Homer's hormones rage, and his skills at "plane geometry" enable him to 'score' a date with his beloved Dorothy (141). Everyone remembers the first time they realized that they were attractive to a member of the opposite sex, and they weren't considered a total outcast by someone they wanted to get to know better. Because Homer's high school was so fiercely divided between jocks and geeks, this memory is especially poignant and relatable to a reader's own experience. For Homer, success at rocket-building and success with girls does not have to seem like mutually exclusive life goals. Homer realizes that being intelligent is a social asset, as girls want to see what he is working on with the other members of the Rocket Club. Being different can actually seem attractive to girls, even though the more brutish boys like Bobby Joe are cruel and violent towards the members of the Rocket Club. Homer's alliance with the other members of the club, and his own unique gifts can protect him, as his mother protects him from his father sometimes, and his teacher Miss Riley protects him from the principal's...

"You have to have the courage to learn what's inside of it" (207). Miss Riley makes Homer responsible for his own learning. She knows he has great dreams of scientific success. She believes in him. She also believes in the power of books. That is why his teacher orders Homer Principles of Guided Missile Design -- to keep, not merely to borrow. The book has chapters on engine design, one of the greatest problems that Homer is having with his prototypes of his rocket. Homer has potential, and he needs greater knowledge than exists in Coalwood to fully exercise this potential. He needs the book, but a book can only unlock the secrets of rocketry provided Homer has the intelligence to put those secrets to good use.
One of the most interesting aspects of this scene is how it echoes many other scenes in Rocket Boys where women help Homer succeed, even while less forward-thinking, jealous, or brutish men do not. Homer's father wants him to work for the mines; Homer's mother wants him to become a scientist. Homer's principal makes the curriculum more difficult only when the school's future football seasons are threatened, Homer's teacher encourages him to shoot for the stars. Even the girls protect the Rocket Club members from the football players at the school and the school even has a female librarian who helps Homer and Miss Riley get the important book on rocket design. "Sonny, it may take awhile, but I believe you can learn the things that are in that book," says Miss Riley, and urges him to enter the science fair (207). Admiration (and perhaps a bit of a schoolboy crush) for Miss Riley acts as a powerful motivational force that drives the young Homer's ambition. "Miss Riley,' I said, 'if you want me to enter I'll do it'" (207).