On a scale of 1-10, I would give this book an 8. Peak is a novel written by Roland Smith who has written a couple of books before this and has written several books since. Most of Roland Smith’s books have been young adult fiction. Peak is the only book to its series, but some other great books by Roland Smith include Elephant Run, Tentacles, and Zack’s Lie. Roland Smith writes no matter what, every single day, no matter where he might be. Roland Smith became a published author when he published the nonfiction book, Sea Otter Rescue, in 1990. His first fiction novel was Thunder Cave published in 1995. Peak was first published in May 2007.
The book is set in modern daytime and takes place mainly on Mount Everest although the book starts off in New York City. The main characters of the book are Peak Marcello, Joshua Wood, Sun-jo, and Zopa. In the beginning of the book Peak is climbing a “Mountain”. Afterwards when he gets in trouble with the mayor of New York City and faces time in a juvenile detention center and a fine his biological father Joshua promises that he will be to get Joshua out of New York City that evening. The judge agrees to this and Peak does not face any charges. The book then goes on about the physical and emotional challenges Peak faces as he climbs Mt. Everest. As Peak is climbing to the peak of Mt. Everest he learns that his father only wants him there to get the youngest person ever to the top of the world and with Sun-jo there he is afraid his father will leave him behind because Sun-jo is 6 days older than what Peak is. Peak then competes with/helps Sun-jo to get to the top to be the youngest person ever to reach the summit of Everest. If that was confusing don’t worry the only person in the book that really knows what will happen is Zopa (which is really weird).
Roland conveyed this story very realistically. One of the things I enjoyed about this book was that it was fictitious autobiography. What started out, as a kid’s journal in the story became a lesson about new friends and family. This book is made-up but Roland really did his research when writing Peak about what it takes to make it up Everest. Most people think that climbing Everest is just a straight climb to the summit but it really takes anywhere from 6 weeks and your summit ‘window’ is sometimes just 2-3 days that people can get to the peak during.