The title then (and the subsequent very loose movie interpretation) was. As a bit of trivia, the story, or a version of it, was first published in The Saturday Evening Post, June 23, 1951. 'The Fog Horn' is perhaps an even sadder story than I remembered. 'The Rocket' is a sad but sweet tale that I had completely forgotten about and really enjoyed it. The collection begins a little weak frankly, but once it gets going, it goes. There is even one in the middle ('The Exiles') I quite dislike. Every story was written before there was a single satellite in space. The truth is that the science fiction feels very dated. He really can't be pigeonholed as a 'type.' Every story here isn't fabulous. Bradbury was rarely an idea man like perhaps Arthur C Clarke.

They take me back just a little to that magic 'sense of wonder' feeling one has as a youth. Re-reading it all these years later I am still amazed by some of these stories. When I first read this in 1976 I was already familiar with several of the stories from other collections, but reading what amounted to a collection of hits in one place put this one high on my favorites list.

Think of this as Mr B's greatest hits for boys. All but two of the stories had previously appeared in other collections when they were brought together here in 1962. Most of Bradbury's writing I would not call science fiction, but with this it is. 'R is for Rocket' is a collection of collections, primarily science fiction as one would expect by the title.

R is for rocket by ray bradbury