Center for Teaching & Learning

When Peak is arrested for scaling skyscrapers at the age of fourteen, he is given a choice: go to juvenile detention, or go live in Taiwan with a  father that he hasn't seen in five years. He chooses his dad. Together they fly to Taiwan, and when they get there Josh (Peak calls his dad by his first name) sends his son to take fitness and blood tests. But why? He finds out a week later when he flies to Nepal, and together they start climbing the north side of Mt. Everest. Peak must push on to get home safely to his mom and sisters.
Peak is amazing, realistic mountaineering fiction, and I couldn't put it down. Roland Smith hooks his audience at the lead with a basic intro. By not introducing his family yet with a first person narrative, readers can get a picture of what it is like to climb Everest—and for Peak it is how he needs to get through his struggles  to see his family again. But Peak meets a lot of people who are threatening his climb and threatening his climbing partners—technically they aren't supposed to be climbing past camp three. Not only does Peak need to come home safely, he needs to reach the summit before his fifteenth birthday in order to be the youngest person to summit Everest.
Peak is reliable narrator, which is a good choice because there are other aspects of the story that are hard to understand, so Smith makes him explain. For example, Peak tells readers what the different equipment is, and he describes how they use it. For example, a climber needs crampons (sharp metal picks that you attach to your boots) on snow and ice. Because of this great narration I could get a full picture of what it is like on Everest, so I definitely rated this book a ten.
I recommend this story for boys and girls who like realistic novels about survival. Also this book has a sequel called Edge. Both of these amazing tales are must-reads.
Emma Harcourt Books, 246 pages