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| Peak | 
 enlarge | Author: Roland Smith
Publisher: Harcourt Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $6.95
Buy New: $2.71
You Save: $4.24 (61%)
New (41) Used (7) from $2.71
Avg. Customer Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 7860
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0152062688
EAN: 9780152062682
ASIN: 0152062688
Publication Date: August 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New. Delivery is usually 5 - 8 working days from order, International is by Royal Mail Airmail
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Product Description
After Peak Marcello is arrested for scaling a New York City skyscraper, he’s left with two choices: wither away in Juvenile Detention or to go live with his long-lost father, who runs a climbing company in Thailand. But Peak quickly learns that his father’s renewed interest in him has strings attached. Big strings. He wants Peak to be the youngest person to reach the Everest summit—and his motives are selfish at best. Even so, for a climbing addict like Peak, tackling Everest is the challenge of a lifetime. But it’s also one that could cost him his life.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 Courtesy of Teens Read Too May 25, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Have you ever wondered what inspires people to climb mountains? What drives some to the highest peaks? Fourteen-year-old Peak Marcello was born to climb. Born to a couple of dedicated "rock rats," Peak has climbing in his blood.
Peak's parents are divorced. He hasn't heard from his father for years. Suddenly, after being arrested for illegally climbing a skyscraper, Peak finds himself on his way to Kathmandu to join his dad, famous climber, Joshua Wood.
Forced to leave his mother, stepfather, and half-sisters behind, Peak has mixed feelings about the trip. It means spending time in some of the best climbing territory in the world. It also means spending time with a man who never answered his letters or bothered to get to know his own son.
Once Peak arrives in the neighborhood of Mt. Everest, the real plan becomes evident. Joshua Wood runs an adventure/expedition company struggling to make ends meet. Taking the youngest ever person to the summit of Mt. Everest would assure the continued success of his company. Peak is just the fourteen year old for the job. Can he survive the brutal conditions and make it to the top? Will his father be able to protect him from the foreign authorities who have other ideas about who should be allowed to climb in their country?
Peak Marcello is about to have the adventure of a lifetime. His mental as well as physical strength will be tested, and what is truly important in life will be revealed.
Roland Smith, well-known for his adventure books, provides another great story for his fans. The struggle to survive on Mt. Everest, in addition to the thrilling attempt to reach its summit, makes for some fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat reading. I recommend PEAK for any teen collection.
Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"
Peak October 8, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
In the book Peak, Roland Smith tells a realistic fiction story about a fourteen-year-old boy who gets a chance to summit Mt. Everest. But, when Peak gets up to Base Camp he discovers the good and bad sides to this climb.
The story begins with Peak at home in New York where he attends a special school called GSS. They don't specialize in climbing though. Eventually, he discovers another talent, writing. So his new English teacher gives him an assignment to write in moleskin journals about anything interesting in his life. Then his desire to climb gets him into a lot of trouble with the law. So his mom and step dad, make a bargain with the law, which includes going to live with his father who is a well-known professional climber. So he sets off to Nepal with his dad, and learns more about climbing, family history and to appreciate his step dad and sisters.
Also on this thrilling adventure, he gets to know many people other than his dad Sun jo a Nepalese boy who's grandfather Zopa is accompanying them up to Base Camp. Another climber, Holly Anglo who is a reporter who wants to tell the story bout the youngest person ever to summit Everest. Which if everything goes okay then that will be Peak.
Zopa is trying to hide Sun jo on the Tibetan side of the mountain with a crazy Captain Shek who is after illegal climbers. Shek is constantly trying to find Sun jo and deport him to Nepal.
On top of all his discoveries there are so many obstacles on the mountain itself than Peak can imagine. He and Sun jo must help each other make it to the top. Their biggest problem though is the oxygen. There isn't any. The higher they go there is less oxygen and more breath taking obstacles and sights there are.
Very Well Written November 2, 2007
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
This book was very well written and took you on a roller coaster from the moment you opened the book untill the moment you closed it. I could not stop reading this book once i got started. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a high altitude thriller.
Peak December 11, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Lots of good information about climbing in this book. It is exciting and yet methodical, which is what climbing safely is. It was amazing to learn about all the preparation and the challenges. A great deal of credit needs to go to the Sherpas.
Richie's Picks: PEAK November 5, 2007
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
"Spent a little time on the mountain, spent a little time on the hill"
-- Hunter/Garcia
"This is it, I told myself. Fifteen more handholds and I've topped it.
"I reached up for the next seam and encountered a little snag. Well, a big snag really...
"My right ear and cheek were frozen to the terra cotta wall.
"To reach the top you must have resolve, muscles, skill, and...
"A FACE!"
"Mine was anchored to that wall like a bolt, and a portion of it stayed there when I gathered enough resolve to tear it loose. Now I was mad, which was exactly what I needed to finish the climb. "Cursing with every vertical lunge, I stopped about four feet below the edge, tempted to tag this monster with the blood running down my neck. But instead I took the mountain stencil out of my pack (cheating, I know, but you have to have two free hands to do it freehand), slapped it on the wall, and filled it in with blue spray paint.
"This is when the helicopter came up behind me and nearly blew me off the wall.
" 'You're under arrest!' an amplified voice shouted above the deafening rotors."
There is a good reason why fourteen-year-old Peak Marcello has been stuck practicing his climbing skills amidst the skyscrapers of Manhattan. But now that he has been caught tagging and summating the Woolworth Building, there is also a good reason why it is necessary for him to be away from New York for a while.
Fortunately, the professional-climbing father he has not seen in seven years gets word of Peak's widely-reported escapades and related legal difficulties, and before the teenager's face can even begin to heal, Peak Marcello finds himself halfway around the world in Kathmandu -- his first stop on the way to possibly becoming the youngest climber to ever conquer Mount Everest.
"I'd read at least a dozen books about conquering 8,000-meter peaks (peaks above 26,000 feet), including the three books my father had written. There are fourteen of those peaks in the world.
"It can take at least two months to get to the top of Everest, which is actually 8,850 meters tall. The long climbing time is not because of the distance, which is less than five miles, but because it's up.
"Most of the climbing time is spent sitting in the six camps along the route, letting your body get used to the thin air. If you go up too fast you might get mountain sickness, or high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). Here's how HAPE works: your lungs fill with fluid, you can't breath, you go into a coma, then you die."
Peak's need to concentrate on the life-and-death struggle that exists for anyone preparing to climb Everest (and return alive) is constantly being impeded by the political complications that exist for climbers of the northern (Tibetan) side which is supervised by the Chinese military, by Peak's attempts to understand his father's long absence from his life, and by a female reporter who had covered his Manhattan skyscraper exploits and who appears at the base camp in Tibet with her personal chef, masseuse, and camera crew.
As he "climbs high and sleeps low," progressing through the stages that will prepare him for his shot at the summit, Peak Marcello discovers where the similarities between himself and his father begin and end, and decides for himself what in life really counts.
A few years ago, I read TO THE TOP by Stephen Venables, an excellent, photo-filled book for adolescents about the history of climbing Everest and that author's own successful climb. It will serve as a great follow-up for readers who are enthralled by this rewarding and death-defying tale and who aren't yet ready to leave the mountain behind.
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