Peak by Roland Smith
Fourteen year-old Peak Marcello is fascinated with climbing. He is so gung-ho about it that he starts climbing and tagging the highest peak where he lives at, the skyscrapers in New York City. He gets caught, arrested, and sentenced to probation until his eighteenth birthday. He also needs to leave New York and live with his dad, Joshua, until things cool off there. The problem is that he hasn't seen his dad since he was seven and he lives in Thailand. Peak has no choice, either go off to a foreign country or spend time in jail. When they get to Thailand, Joshua has already made arrangements for Peak to be the youngest person to climb Mt. Everest. Peak is thrilled, but he also finds out his dad is using him for publicity. Joshua's adventure travel company, Peak Experience, is losing money and if Peak makes it to the summit, his company will get tremendous amount of business. At base camp, Peak gets to know fourteen year-old Sun-jo, and finds out he is also trying to reach the summit. If Sun-jo makes it, he will also be considered the youngest person by a one week age difference. Sun-jo's father passed away and the only way to secure his family's financial future is by reaching the summit before his fifteenth birthday. At first, Peak doesn't want to share the glory with Sun-jo, but when they get ten feet from reaching the summit Peak does something he had not planned on. He stands back, takes out his camera, and films Sun-jo reach the summit. Peak decides that it was more important for Sun-jo to secure his family's future than for him to reach the summit just for the glory of it. In the end, he decides family is more important and heads back to New York City. This is an amazing book about the moral struggles that one faces in life: family or glory. I would highly recommend this book to middle, upper grade students, and reluctant readers. Smith gives great detail about the difficulties and challenges one faces when attempting to climb Mt. Everest. The book will hook you from the very beginning and you will not want to put it down until you find out if Peak or Sun-jo made it to the summit alive.
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