VVMBookBlog

14-year-old Peak (yes, that’s his name) Marcello has just been arrested for climbing and tagging yet another Manhattan’s skyscraper. On his way to trying to avoid a stay in juvie, Peak’s birth-father, Josh, shows up and Peak is whisked off to Kathmandu, and then to the base camp with a bunch of mountain climbers heading for the top of Mount Everest! While this is pretty exciting for Peak, he soon realizes that being included with his dad’s climbing business might be more to boost his dad’s business than just a trip with his father. In fact, Peak at 14 years old will be the youngest person ever to summit Mount Everest, but he has to make it before his birthday on June 1st! And then there is Josh’s Sherpa friend Zopa and his grand-son Sun-jo who would also like to summit at a record young age. Who will get there first?

This book brings you all of the traditions and problems that go with trying to make the trek to the top of Mount Everest. You realize how the Sherpas who help carry supplies up to the highest base camps and help climbers reach the summit are some of the toughest, strongest people on earth. Being able to move and breathe up around 30,000 feet at the level at which jet planes cruise, is a real feat! Into This Air by Jon Krakauer is a non-fiction book on this topic, and currently there is a series on Discovery Channel, “Everest: Beyond the Limit.”

Capricorn Anderson, “Cap” for short, is in 8th grade and in a real school for the first time in his life. He’s been living in a ’60’s-like commune with only Rain, his grandmother, as his only parent, teacher or friend. When Rain hurts herself falling out of the plum tree picking plums, Capricorn has to enter school, and real society, for the first time.

As you can guess, the reaction of the students at Claverage Middle School wasn’t good. The tradition was that the geekiest kid in 8th grade would be elected class president and then would be the subject of bullying and wedgies for the whole year, or as long as he/she could take it. The tradition held true for Cap as he quickly found himself named class president and in charge of the big Halloween party! But as naive and innocent as Cap was, the whole “tradition of mean” just wasn’t working on him. In fact, other students were starting to LIKE HIM! Now what?

This book reminded me a little of Buddha Boy by Kathe Koja, but wasn’t as violent. And since Gordon Korman is the author, it’s very funny. If you like to see the underdog come out on top, this is the book for you. The fun part is how he gets there!