Peak is a teeneager who has always wanted to climb. He lives in New York, and is caught tagging buildings. His long - forgotten father shows up and gets him out of trouble. His father runs a climbing company and wants Peak to do one thing while he is with him - become the youngest person ever to top Mount Everest. Peak makes new friends along the way and expiriences some tough challenges. This book is GREAT!!! ( )

Reviewed by Mrs. Foley
From Destiny library record, "A fourteen-year-old boy attempts to be the youngest person to reach the top of Mount Everest."

This is a 2009-2010 Gateway Award nominee. Roland Smith is a popular author with middle school and junior high students. I'm not sure how many high schoolers will pick this one up. I don't expect it to win the award, although it is a good book and I did enjoy reading it. I just think it is a little "young" for the Gateway Award. When the upcoming Gateway Award books were offered to last year's voters at my school, this was the only one that no one wanted to check out.

Review from School Library Journal (June 1, 2007)
Gr 6 Up-In this high-altitude adventure, 14-year-old Peak Marcello's passion for climbing is clearly in the genes, but when he is arrested for scaling tall buildings, his mom and stepdad make a deal with the judge to ship him out of the country to live with her ex-husband and squelch the media attention that might inspire "Spider Boy" copycats. The teen's father, Josh, and his Himalayan expedition company are preparing teams to climb Mount Everest and suddenly Peak is faced with the possibility of becoming the youngest climber to reach the summit. Excited about the adventure, he learns that Josh may have less-than-fatherly motives involving publicity and financial gain for his company, at the expense of his paying customers. Peak is handed off to his father's head Sherpa for training and altitude acclimation with a Nepalese boy his own age, named Sun-jo. At the same time, a media crew gathers at base camp to witness the climb, and an overzealous Chinese police captain doggedly searches for passport violations and underage climbers. Facts about Mount Everest, base camps, and the dangers of climbing are plentiful, depicting an international culture made up of individuals who are often self-absorbed and indifferent to the Tibetan Sherpas, who risk their lives for them. Peak's empathy for Sun-jo helps him make a critical decision as they near the summit, revealing his emotional growth and maturity. A well-crafted plot and exotic setting give the novel great appeal to survival adventure fans.-Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information. ( )

Fifteen year old Peak Marcello has been arrested for scaling the Woolworth building. It was the sixth skyscraper he'd climbed, but the first time he'd been caught. Things would be less dire if a boy hadn't died trying to imitate Peak's climb. As the son of two professional climbers, Peak had plenty of climbing experience other copycat pranksters wouldn't have. The judge wants to make an example of Peak, and sentences him to three years in a juvenile detention center. Peak is surprised when his famous mountaineer father, Josh Marchello, shows up at his trial...after all, he hadn't seen him in the last seven years. He's even more shocked when his father offers to take custody of Peak and move him to Chiang Mai, Thailand. The judge agrees, hoping to end the media frenzy and the imitation climbers. Except on the plane, Peak's dad says they aren't going to Chiang Mai right away. First they are going to Kathmandu, Nepal. Then they are joining up with the expedition Josh was leading to the top of Mount Everest. If Peak makes the summit, he'll be the youngest person ever to stand above 29,000 feet. If he makes the summit. ( )

Reviewed by Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

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. ( )

The novel “Peak” opens with a 14-year old boy (by the same) illegally climbing a New York skyscraper and getting arrested. Peak goes to court and the judge, who is initially considering a three-year jail sentence as punishment, decides to let him go live with his long-lost father in Thailand. But Peak’s father has plans for him to become the youngest climber to summit Mount Everest, for selfish reasons of his own.

It took a few chapters for me to get into this book, but once Peak arrived at the Everest base camp I was very interested in the story. I’ve always enjoyed reading about mountaineering and the author, Roland Smith, seems to have done his research to make the story believable. After reading this book, it was easier to appreciate the difficulty of climbing Everest.

In this book, Peak is portrayed as a real kid with personal issues and struggles. He has to deal with the distant relationship that he has with his dad, who’s been out of the picture for the last seven years of his life. He also makes a surprising decision in the midst of competing with another boy his age to get to the summit.

Overall, I thought this was an entertaining and exciting read. I enjoyed the adventure and the suspense and I think kids will too. ( )

i love this book ( )

I am a middle school rogue librarian who used to rock climb and back pack in Asia, so I would have to like this book.
Not necessarily, I had a hard time scaling Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard. Peak, on the other hand, grabs your attention and won't let you fall.
Some books about exotic locations and wilderness sports are not very accessible to urban youth. This story has something for everyone, even a hero who justifies the urge to tag.
To begin, the teen protagonist of the story, Peak is his name, describes the writing strategy of a 'hook' and then demonstates it in the very next chapter as he starts the real plot of the novel recounting the story of his skyscraper climbing, tagging feat, and arrest.
The publicity surrounding his climb has many consequences. An inexperienced copycat kid dies trying to mimic his feat. The negative impact is that the authorities want to make an example of him. The apparent positive result is that the arrest brings his biological dad, a famous mountaineer called Josh, back from Asia to help. In a bizarre bargain, Peak is put in Josh's custody and directed to make hiself scarce so the authorities don't have to deal with his public problem. Josh has been an absent father so far in Peak's life and his motivations in the rescue become unclear when he surprisingly takes Peak to Everest instead of Thailand as planned.

All the time Peak is writing as part of his school make up work for graduation and also to excite the librarians and educators who will love this book and plug it like mad to their students.

Peak ends up joining an Everest expedition. The climbing is made more precarious by the interpersonal relationships between Peak and the characters with whom he is climbing. There's also foreign immigration departments and other issues.

The plot of this story moves like a page-turning avalanche of events upon the reader. The climbing action is riveting and the drama tense and moving.
Climbing is an activity that tests the power of trust between people in a unique way. Climbers are all tied together on the side of the mountain. The connection between motivations and consequences can be tenuous when one climber slips.
The theme of trust in relationships also makes the novel relevant to teens.

The messages that Peak leaves us with at the top of Everest and the climax of the story are valuable. Reading Peak is not as character building as actually climbing one, but thanks to Smith's skill it could be a start for some lucky teen readers.

This is a well written book. It is a story about a boy climbing Mt. Everest in China. The climax in the book will hook you and if you like climbing then you will enjoy reading this book. The suspense of the climax will keep your attention all the way to the end. The characters really make the book interesting. I would recommend this book to anyone! ( )

Peak Marcello has mountaineering in his blood. The only problem is that his mother and step-father live in New York City. So Peak gets his adrenaline fix the only way he can, he climbs skyscrapers. When he gets caught his mother agrees that Peak can go live with his father, Josh. But she doesn't realize that Josh intends to take Peak onto Mount Everest, where he is currently leading a team to the summit. And he has plans for Peak, who could be the youngest ever to make it to the top of the world.

I've read half-a-dozen mountaineering books, mostly fiction, so I wasn't surprised when this one popped up in my Recommendations. I enjoy YA fiction so I decided to give it a go. Like a lot of other YA books, the journey, the quest, is largely a vehicle for the protagonist to grow up, grow wiser, learn life's lessons. I enjoyed it and I didn't predict the ending at all. I was very much reminded of Jeff Long's The Ascent throughout this story. Not just because it involves a summit push on Everest but also because of the politics with the Sherpas and the Chinese. I would definitely recommend this to teens looking for an adventure fix. ( )

I thought this was a pretty good book, but it moved pretty slowly at times. I liked how the action happened at the beginning to get the reader hooked, but after that it slowed down a bit. I thought the book was very strong in the area of conflict. There was always some sort of conflict going on throughout the story and it also included both kinds of conflict, internal and external. I thought this book was pretty weak in the area of characterization. There were descriptions of the characters, but I still felt that they were a bit vague. I learned most about the characters through the dialogue that they shared. The setting was pretty good. Again there was brief descriptions, but for me, who has never been mountain climbing, it was a bit hard for me to visualize some of the climbing that was taking place. ( )

I loved this book. I could not put it down for two days. I feel that I could have read it in a day if I had a full-time nanny. The strength's of this book are in the characters that unfold in the story. Peak is a dynamic character in the story. He undergos his own personal confict resolution with his real dad as he attempts the climb of his physical and personal life on Mt. Everest. The weaknesses of the book for me was the language...vocab. I found myself not understanding some of the mountain climbing lingo throughout the book. The author did explain the climbing vocab when he first introduced it, but it would have been nice to have it revisited a couple more times as it was used. ( )

Richie's Picks: PEAK by Roland Smith, Harcourt, May 2007, ISBN: 0-15-202417-4

"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.

Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
Moderator, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_...
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks ( )

All children between the ages of 10 - 14 with a sense of adventure and love of the outdoors should read this book. As should anyone else who simply loves a good story. This book should sit high on the list of books for reluctant male readers, as it is action-packed, but easy-to-read. Another caveat, a nice break from the fantasy genre. ( )

Peak is a 14 year-old thrill seeker who is happiest scaling mountains. Living in New York City, however, makes that challenging, so instead Peak scales skyscrapers. That is until he gets caught and arrested. Peak figures his lawyer step-father will be able to talk his way out of the situation, which would have been the case were it not for a copy-cat kid who tried to scale another building but instead fell to his death. Now the cops and lawyers are looking for someone to pin the blame on, and Peak’s their guy. At the last minute though, Peak gets a reprieve, his father, a world-renowned mountain climber whom Peak hasn’t seen in years, has come to his rescue. But it means Peak must leave New York, his family and friends, and travel half way around the world to Thailand.Only his father doesn’t take him to Thailand, instead Peak finds himself at base camp on Mt. Everest with the opportunity to be the youngest person ever to reach the summit. But so many people don’t survive the climb. Will Peak be one of them, or will he find fame on the top of the world? - Emma

Great story about climbing Mt. Everest. ( )

I thought this was going to be another boring "Boy conquers Everest" story, but I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of this novel. Essentially the book is a self-discovery novel about Peak the 14 year old son of two former climbers. Peak's mother has remarried and he lives with her, twin 6 year old step-sisters and a caring step-dad called Rolf in the USA. His father, Josh, meanwhile, still climbs and runs a mountaineering business that takes rich tourists to the Base Camp of Everest. He has seriously neglected his fatherly duties; seen Peak only a few times and (a deeply sore point to Peak) never replied to any of the letters that his son wrote to him. The story begins with Peak caught scaling the outside of a huge building so he can "tag" it with his blue mountain logo. (See front cover of book.) This is bad enough when he is taken into police custody but unfortunately things suddenly get a lot worse when a boy is killed trying to copy Peak's feat. Faced with the prospect of 3 years jail, Peak takes the optiopn of living with his father in Asia instead. But Josh actually has other ideas and Peak finds himself in his father's bizarre quest to put the youngest person on Everest. Along the way, there is severe homesickness, altitude sickness and viruses and bitter cold, a fall-out with the Chinese soldiers, an annoying reporter and her film crew to attend to, a developing friendship with a mysterious Buddhist monk (ex-Sherpa)and his 14 year old grandson Sunjo, and of course, an understanding of his own resentment of his father. On top of all this are the physical and mental difficulties of tackling the world's highest mountain that include walking past so many frozen corpses. Does Peak have the "right stuff" or will Sagarmatha claim another victim?
p.151 -153. Chinese soldier Captain Shek comes looking for Sunjo who has entered Nepal illegally.

Peak offers its readers a chance to explore a place that they may never be able to go. It also offers the readers a chance to learn so much about mountains and the processes of climbing them and delves into the conflict of so many people being able to climb the highest peaks of the world as "tourists". Excellent.

Peak was born to climbers, hence the name. It also sparked an interest in him to climb. When he gets caught climbing up the sides of skyscrapers, the best solution found is to pack him off with his biological father, who lives in China. What Peak doesn't know, is that his father is in the middle of taking an expedition up Everest and is going to bring Peak along. This book is about climbing, surviving harsh climates, Everest, and family. ( )

I never would have picked this book up unless I had been assigned to read it. I was pleasantly surprised by the plotline and characters, however, and I am glad I finished the book. This is an adventure story about a boy named Peak. Peak was born un expectedly to two avid mountain climbers, but his dad, Josh, didn't stick around. Peak is raised by his mother who remarries and moves the family to New York, a far cry from the Wyoming upbringing Peak so enjoyed. When Peak is arrested for scaling a skyscraper, the judge offers him the opportunity to go to Tibet with his father or spend time in jail. Peak agrees to go with Josh, though he is surprised that his father wants anything to do with him. When Peak arrives in Tibet, however, he realizes his dad doesn't have plans to put him in a special school; instead, Josh has plans to take him to Everest's summit as a publicity stunt for Josh's climbing company. Roland Smith keeps the reader in suspense and manages to tug at the reader's heartstrings at the same time. I loved the characters in this book and think it was wonderfully written. Anyone who like this book should consider Into Thin Air by John Krakauer. ( )

Recommended Ages: Gr 6-10

Plot Summary: After Peak is arrested for climbing a building in New York, his father, a famous climber, brings him to Everest in the hopes of Peak becoming the youngest person to get to the summit.

Recurring Themes: survival, Chinese-Tibet relations, Mount Everest, climbing, family, trust

Controversial Issues: lying (to mother and Chinese officials), death (brief explanation of corpse's lying in ice)

Personal Thoughts: This was a quick read that would be great for boys who loved Hatchet, since it has similar themes of family and survival. There was a lot of description of the equipment and locations, and at times I would have liked to have some illustrations or photographs to help me understand. Smith didn't mention the beauty of the setting until the last sentence of the book. ( )

When 14 year old Peak gets arrested for climbing a skyscraper to leave his tag on it, he begins his journey to the other side of the world with the father he barely knows. He recounts the details of his most difficult ordeal on two moleskin notebooks. With compelling insight into the mind of a brave, yet very human young man, this book is an enjoyable read which incorporates a setting not often seen in young adult literature. Recommended for fans of Hatchet and other survival fiction. ( )

ya, realistic fiction, adventure

Well written book and one that many teens would enjoy. As a climber myself, I found parts of it unconvincing, given my own and my friends' experiences with climbing, but particularly for folks who have never experienced a peak, this is a good read. ( )

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Fourteen-year-old New Yorker Peak ("It could have been worse. My parents could have named me Glacier, or Abyss, or Crampon.") Marcello hones his climbing skills by scaling skyscrapers. After Peak is caught climbing the Woolworth Building, an angry judge gives him probation, with an understanding that Peak will leave New York and live with his famous mountaineer father in Thailand. Peak soon learns, however, that his father has other plans for him; he hopes that Peak will become the youngest person to climb Mt. Everest. Peak is whisked off to Tibet and finds himself in the complex world of an Everest base camp, where large amounts of money are at stake and climbing operations offer people an often-deadly shot at the summit. This is a thrilling, multifaceted adventure story. Smith includes plenty of mountaineering facts told in vivid detail (particularly creepy is his description of the frozen corpses that litter the mountain). But he also explores other issues, such as the selfishness that nearly always accompanies the intensely single-minded. A winner at every level. For more mountaineering adventures, suggest Edward Meyers' Climb or Die (1994) and Michael Dahl's The Viking Claw (2001), both for a slightly younger audience. Todd Morning
Copyright © American Library Association.

An intense book. This journey of a boy to come to grips with his relationship with his father, his jealousy and fear, and his delinquent behavior is a very compelling story. It does bog down a little bit in the middle with an overabundance of description of lots of tense mountain climbing. Worth the read. Boys may really enjoy this. ( )