Fourteen-year-old Peak has the opportunity to climb Mt. Everest with his long-lost father. What sounds like an amazing experience comes with agonizing risks.
Fast-paced and exhilarating! Booklist, starred review. Skip to main content. Search form Search. Let Us Shop For You! Sort order. Start your review of Peak Peak 1. View all 56 comments.
Peak Marcello is fourteen years old and like most fourteen year old boys that I have encountered he is kinda dumb.
He has been climbing skyscrapers in New York City because I guess he is bored. He gets busted after climbing one of them and is given a choice..
Peak doesn't really have the typical type of parents.. Mom calmed down after she broke her back climbi Peak Marcello is fourteen years old and like most fourteen year old boys that I have encountered he is kinda dumb.
Mom calmed down after she broke her back climbing and went on to settle down and have Peak a couple of sisters. But Dad? He now has started his own adventure expedition company. Guess what's up next on Dad's agenda?
Oh heck yes! I'm have weird fascinations with several things and that dang Mt. Everest is one of them. Dad surprises Peak with the fact that he is going to be the youngest to summit Everest. He doesn't really ask.. Peak has never had a close relationship with his dad due to the fact that he wasn't a mountain so their relationship has always been strained. Then when he gets to the mountain base camp thinking he is going to go with his dad he realizes that he is living in a dream world.
His climbing companion is to be an old monk who used to be a Sherpa and a young boy. Now let's talk about how good this was. The author does an amaze balls job with how scary that damn mountain is. Including that elusive 'death zone' where every minute you spend in it is your body dying.
He even talks about the dead bodies on it. I expected a young adult book to gloss over those. I need to buy a copy of this one to make convince the boy child to read. It's got all the good stuff: No lurrrve story, great writing, quick paced and there is a real heartwarming part for the people that have feelings.
And best of all???? Everest for the ones of us that are fascinated but no there is no way in hello that we'd ever do it. Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review. I got this from Netgalley a hundred years ago and forgot to read it. Because I'm a dumbass. View all 19 comments. Jul 27, Dianne rated it it was amazing Shelves: agesup , dysfunctional-families , good-boy-read , own , netgalley , 1-in-series , coming-of-age , personal-growth , ya. Roland Smith has captured the ever elusive thoughts and feelings of a teenaged boy who journals his thoughts, life and experiences on his climb up Mt.
Everest and most importantly, his new found maturity and values as he braves frigid temperatures, a death-defying climb and the gritty side of human nature, as well as the best humanity has to offer. Welcome to the world of Peak , bundle up, grab some oxygen, and settle in for a breathtaking read for all ages! Born to climb, born to parents who live Roland Smith has captured the ever elusive thoughts and feelings of a teenaged boy who journals his thoughts, life and experiences on his climb up Mt.
Born to climb, born to parents who lived for the thrill of the danger, the exhilaration and feeling of accomplishment in defying gravity, Peak was a natural. Enter the mind and thoughts of a teen who learns what is important in life as his eyes are opened to the world and the people around him. Roland Smith has given us adventure, danger and tells it with the youthful voice of young Peak. Magnetic, adventurous, young readers will feel the highs, the lows and the awe of this adventure as if they were there.
Highly recommended for ALL ages, classrooms, libraries, everywhere! May 28, J rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: middle school boys. Shelves: my-favs , middle-school-boys. Unfortunately, his last illegal climb of a skyscraper hands him a harsh sentence from a Judge who is trying to make an example of him.
Peak's father steps in and offers to finish raising the boy half "I have climbed my mountain, but I still must go back and live my life. Peak's father steps in and offers to finish raising the boy halfway around the world. His father gives Peak an opportunity to climb Mount Everest in order to be the youngest climber to top the mountain, but Peak soon realizes there are strings attached to the deal.
I love this book because Peak realizes that there is more to life than just grazing skyscrapers and topping mountains. He learns a lesson that his father will never learnthat there is more to life than climbing mountains and One must set his sights on something higher in the end. Peak learns that he must find a healthy balance between his passion for climbing and other goals in life that build a young boy's character. Famous climbers have often said that "Altitude is the great equalizer" in one's life.
Peak begins to wonder if his lack of selfishness and self-centeredness will ultimately costs him his claim to fame as the world's youngest climber to top Mount Everest. The things in life that really matter lie far below. Oct 31, Ashley rated it liked it Recommends it for: pre-teens and young teens; those interested in mountain climbing.
Shelves: for-book-club. In the beginning, fourteen year old Peak Marcello winds up getting arrested for illegally climbing skyscrapers in New York City. This leads him to his long-lost father and to a climb that changed everything- a climb on Mount Everest. I learned three main things from this book Thin In the beginning, fourteen year old Peak Marcello winds up getting arrested for illegally climbing skyscrapers in New York City. Think of others before yourself. View 2 comments.
Jan 26, Donalyn rated it really liked it Shelves: ya-realistic-fiction. I have several students who jokingly tell each other, "Climb high, sleep low," when they have a problem, great advice from Peak! This is definitely a book that adds to your schema for all things Everest. I learned so much from this book--the types of people drawn to mountain climbing, technical terms for gear and mountains, and the dangers of attempting to reach the summit.
A great coming of age story which parallels the mountain climb. View 1 comment. Jul 28, Sherwood Smith added it. Copy provided by NetGalley: Peak Marcello is fourteen, and at the start of the novel he's clambering at the side of a New York skyscrapers, which he has climbed using his mountaineering training in order to tag. He's arrested and the authorities want to throw the book at him for maximum sentence as a warning. So his absent mountain climber dad swoops in for the first time in Peak's life.
Helps out, promising to whisk Peak off to Tibet and private school, until the notoriety dies down. But what his Copy provided by NetGalley: Peak Marcello is fourteen, and at the start of the novel he's clambering at the side of a New York skyscrapers, which he has climbed using his mountaineering training in order to tag.
But what his dad actually wants Peak to do is become the youngest person ever to climb Mt. While the voice did not remind me of any fourteen year old boy [not just in its clear-sighted maturity, which some adults have trouble managing, but also in certain turns of phrase] I have ever known in a very long life of parenting, teaching, and counseling, that didn't matter much because I liked the voice, I liked the character, and I found the story brisk, vividly described, and gripping.
This book is not new. NetGalley seems to have it as a publicity move to highlight the sequel. Well, that worked. I want to read that sequel. Jun 29, Duffy Pratt rated it liked it Shelves: childrens. Asked why he wanted to climb Everest in , George Mallory quipped "Because it's there.
He was last spotted feet from the summit, and disappeared after that. Seventy five years later they found his body, and from the examinations that were done on it, it sounds like it was mostly intact, basically frozen for eternity or until discovered. There's still some debate over whether Mallory got to the summit, and if he did, whether that counts as the firs Asked why he wanted to climb Everest in , George Mallory quipped "Because it's there.
There's still some debate over whether Mallory got to the summit, and if he did, whether that counts as the first "ascent" of Everest, or whether the laurels should still go to Sir Edmund Hillary.
Since then, an additional people have died trying to climb Everest. If you like stats, that's 4. Of those, over a quarter of the people who died actually reached the summit, and then died on the way down. Peak is about a 14 year old whose father wants him to climb to the summit. His father runs a commercial climbing company, and it would be a big boon to business to lead the youngest climber to ever reach the summit.
Peak, however, does not have many of his own reasons. He can't even say that he's climbing it "because it's there. He illegally climbs skyscrapers in Manhattan to tag them with his mark.
During the book, he is simultaneously climbing Everest and keeping a journal about it the book we get to read. So which is he? In a strange way, that's what this book is about. Peak is in search of motivation, and on Everest he finds it. And that would be a great story, except that I didn't buy the ending of the book at all. At first, it looked like this book would be a bonding story between Peak and his estranged father. But Smith thankfully avoids that aspect, at least for the most part, and that relationship never becomes cloying.
But the book ends up with Peak making an arbitrary choice and decision, and the more I think about what happens, the more arbitrary and unconvincing it seems to me.
Lots of people die on the descent, and I don't think that Peak could handle it on his own at that point. So the safer course would be to go over the top with the companions. And doing that would not hurt anyone at all. So he took a dangerous chance, gaining nothing for himself or anyone else, and all for the satisfaction of giving the finger to mountaineering, and saying that his twin sisters are more important.
But he is able to put off his twin sisters for his writing at the end. So he's not really doing anything for them either. I just don't buy it, and in this case it hurts my overall opinion of the book. It dod a less good job of conveying the wonder of climbing. Instead, it stressed the concentrated focus of doing things one step at a time and repeating the process.
Between the pain, the boredom, the repetition, the illness, and the dead bodies littering the trail, it convincingly makes one wonder why anyone would want to climb Everest at all. And if it had had a more satisfying conclusion and there's part of me that doubts the reliability of the narrative at the end , I would have liked it much better.
Oh, and if you think the idea of a 14 year old kid climbing Everest is a preposterous premise, the current record for youngest to reach the summit is 13 years old, set in , three years after the publication of Peak.
There are also records for first blind person, first amputee, etc Dec 30, Allison Tebo rated it it was amazing Shelves: contemporary , own , favorite-cover. Once in a while, there is a piece of YA fiction with a style that is borderline genius — and that would undoubtedly be Peak.
Peak was the first person this year to join my Hall of Favorite Characters an Once in a while, there is a piece of YA fiction with a style that is borderline genius — and that would undoubtedly be Peak. Peak was the first person this year to join my Hall of Favorite Characters and he is an utterly amazing edition. He is impossible to describe — you will have to read it for yourself. Thematically strong — compelling motifs of forgiveness, sacrifice and maturing are woven amongst a book that portrays the endeavor of surmounting Everest so realistically, it will make make your heart pound and your muscles ache to read it.
The descriptions in this book are gloriously detailed and startlingly pictorial, summing up a frigid and deathly environment that awes and cows the reader. View all 5 comments. There are good books and then there are books you cannot put down. Peak was one of those books for me. I took it with me everywhere.
I read it during every spare moment I had - even during boring parts of a movie I "watched" with my sister. I was, quite literally, on the edge of my seat through the whole thing. In first person, written as a story for a school assignment, Peak tells the story of, well, Peak.
A fourteen, almost fifteen, year old boy who loves climbing. Because he lives in New York There are good books and then there are books you cannot put down. Because he lives in New York, he resorts to - illegally - climbing skyscrapers and tagging blue mountains in inconspicuous places. When he gets caught, it seems he's set to spend the next three years in JV until his father shows up with an alternative.
Peak will spend the next three years with his father. One thing quickly leads to another and next thing we know, Peak is preparing to be the youngest person ever to set foot on the summit of Mount Everest. I picked this up because this book is probably the closest I'll ever get to climbing Mount Everest myself.
I am addicted to books about survival, life and death. Airplane passengers stranded on islands, swimmers in shark infested waters, fourteen year old's climbing five feet above sea-level.
I live in the mile high city; I can't tell you how many out of towners have trouble breathing here. It fascinates me. I can't look away. The book would have to be horrendously written for me to give up on it. Fortunately, Peak didn't disappoint. It wasn't a mind blowing read. It wasn't difficult, and in fact I'd probably recommend it to middle school age kids, maybe even advanced readers younger than that.
Peak keeps you hooked till the very end with surprises at every turn. It's not just a story about survival. It's a story about family and friendship and growing up. And I liked that things didn't turn out all cookie cutter, cheesy, everyone-lives-happily-ever-after. Ooops, spoiler? May 03, Thomas rated it really liked it Recommends it for: Fans of not just climbing, but fiction about family as well.
Shelves: young-adult , realistic-fiction , own-physical. He has the choice of rotting away in juvy, or escaping with his father to climb Everest although he doesn't know it at the time. It's no wonder he decides to go with his neglectful father, who wants Peak to call him Josh.
The rest of the book is about Peak's adventure climbing the legendary mountain, including Josh's incentive and motivation to get his son up the "Peak" is about fourteen-year-old Peak Marcello who has just been arrested for climbing a skyscraper in the center of New York City. The rest of the book is about Peak's adventure climbing the legendary mountain, including Josh's incentive and motivation to get his son up there. There are also other background characters, like Peak's friend Sun-jo and his grandfather Zopa.
The author described the climbing scenes very well though, so even someone like me - who is naive in the ways of climbing - could understand the adventure. Please complete your order now! You are about to leave our Parents site. Are you sure you want to leave? Roland Smith has created an action-packed adventure about friendship, sacrifice, family, and the drive to take on Everest, despite the incredible risk.
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