Starman Jones

The stars were closed to Max Jones. To get into space you either neededconnections, a membership in the arcane Guild, or a whole lot more money thanMax, the son of a widowed, poor mother, was every going to have.

What Maxdoes have going for him are his uncle's prized astrogation manuals- books on star navigation that Max literally commits to memory, word forword, equation for equation.

When Max's mother decides to remarry a bullyingoaf, Max takes to the road, only to discover that his uncle Chet's manuals, andMax's near complete memorization of them, is a ticket to the stars!From the First Golden Age of Heinlein, this is the so-called juvenile(written, Heinlein always claims, just as much for adults) that started them alland made Heinlein a legend for multiple generations ofreaders.