Peak
by Roland Smith
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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 Kathm...more
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 Kathm...more
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Peak is a realistic fiction book by Roland Smith. It is about a boy named Peak who is fourteen when he gets the chance to climb Everest with did dad, who is a pro climber. The timing is good because Peak needs to disappear for a while or go to jail after he gets caught climbing a sky scraper in New York City. He faces many external challenges such as the weather and people who don’t want him to climb for various reasons. He also faces some internal challenges. These include getting over H...more
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Read in March, 2008
Peak hasn't seen his mountain-climber dad in years - until he shows up at Peak's court hearing for climbing a skyscraper and offers a deal to the judge: he'll take Peak to Nepal till the publicity dies down, in return for probation instead of jail. The judge agrees. Of course, Mount Everest is in Nepal, and it turns out that Peak is just young enough to be the youngest climber ever to summit. If he makes it, his dad's company will get lots of publicity and clients. But Peak sees both the good an...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
everyone
This story is about 14 years old Peak. His father never really cared about him because he was too busy climbing mountains and helping other people climb mountains. One day, Peak climbs to the top of a building in New York City and was about to be taken into jail when Peak's father Josh took Peak with him to him company called Peak Experience. Josh planned on having Peak climb up Mountain Everest together w/ Peak to get publicity and more customers to go to his company. I recommend this book to e...more
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A Review of Peak
After reading Peak it felt like anyone could climb Mount Everest. The novel by Roland Smith gives you the idea of how climb the monster mountain really would be. It is the fastest pace book I have ever read. The first word grabbed my attention. “This is it, I told myself. Fifteen more handholds and I’ve topped it.”
While reading Roland’s novel I felt like Peak the main character was talking to me. Peak was 15 close to my age, so I could relate to family drama tha...more
After reading Peak it felt like anyone could climb Mount Everest. The novel by Roland Smith gives you the idea of how climb the monster mountain really would be. It is the fastest pace book I have ever read. The first word grabbed my attention. “This is it, I told myself. Fifteen more handholds and I’ve topped it.”
While reading Roland’s novel I felt like Peak the main character was talking to me. Peak was 15 close to my age, so I could relate to family drama tha...more
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Read in May, 2008
This book about a boy mountain climber is about far more than overcoming the challenges of Everest. I learned a lot about mountain climbing--it is a lot more involved than simply slapping on equipment and trekking up. The climb was a metaphor for Peak's life (and life in general). He not only faced the obvious obstacle of Everest, (physical preparation,weather,lack of oxygen,unexpected danger)but also illness, political adversaries, feelings of hurt and jealousy,fear,homesickness, and finally...more
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Peak is a novel about a young boy, named Peak, who has moved to New York, because his mom got re-married, from his old house out in the country. He decides his life is boring so he climbs three different sky scrapers and leaves his mark, a small blue spray painted mountain on the side of a building. He gets caught, arrested, put in a juvenile detention center, and his biological father has to come to the rescue. His father takes him to Taiwan/china were he is supposed to climb Mount Everest.
Th...more
Th...more
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Read in March, 2008
I loved the voice of the 14 year old main character, Peak. He was self-assured, smart, and caring even though everyone around him encouraged him to be selfish. After he is arrested for scaling a New York City sky scraper, his absent father, Josh, shows up and whisks him off to Asia. Peak soon finds out that his father is planning on using him for a publicity stunt to help his failing climbing business. Josh, who is leading a team of clients up the Nepal side of Everest, is hoping Peak will b...more
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
People who don't get discouraged easily
As much as I want to hate this book, I can't. Everything about the book was amazing! I loved it for 7/8 of the book, and then I hated it. I couldn't believe that Roland Smith chose what he did. After reading Cryptid Hunter, I thought I knew what he had up his sleeve, but I didn't.
Peak Marcello is trying to become the youngest person to summit Mount Everest. After a skyscraper accident, he's shipped off to Nepal/Tibet to climb Mt. Everest with his climber father, Joshua Wood. Trust me, the en...more
Peak Marcello is trying to become the youngest person to summit Mount Everest. After a skyscraper accident, he's shipped off to Nepal/Tibet to climb Mt. Everest with his climber father, Joshua Wood. Trust me, the en...more
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Read in January, 2008
This book is about a 14-year-old boy who has grown up with excelent climbers...his parents! His dad is still a climber and never sees him anymore, because his parents split up. His mom quit climbing when the main character who is telling the story, Peak, was born. He was named after a mountain "peak".
When he was 14, he decided he would climb a skyscraper in New York! (He had been to other climbing camps, so he knew how to climb.) He got caught for climbing by the police, and was sen...more
When he was 14, he decided he would climb a skyscraper in New York! (He had been to other climbing camps, so he knew how to climb.) He got caught for climbing by the police, and was sen...more
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Peak is the story of a 14-year-old boy who with serious climbing addictions is caught climbing a sky scraper in New York, where he lives. During the trial he learns that the penalty is to serve a long form of detention in a juvenile school or to go live with his biological father ,whom he has rarely met , who runs a mountain climbing business in Thailand. What Peak does not realize is that he was rescued by his father ,from certain doom of boredom, so he could take him up to be the youn...more
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Read in October, 2007
After 14-year-old Peak Marcello is arrested scaling a New York City skyscraper, his mother and stepfather negotiate a plea deal where Peak's long-absent father will take him out of the country until the publicity over his stunt dies down. However, his father, a mountaineer who leads expeditions up Mount Everest, has ulterior motives. In order to save his company, he wants Peak to be the youngest person to ever summit Everest. Smith uses rich and fascinating detail about sherpas, Tibet, Buddhism,...more
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Read in March, 2008
This is the second book I read this year about summiting Mt. Everest. If nothing else, I've decided I will never want to do that! This is a fictional account of a 14 yr. old, Peak, whose father wants him to be the youngest boy ever to summit. The boy, who got in trouble in NY for climbing skyscrapers in order to paint graffiti on them, learns as much about himself as he does about climbing in this adventurous story. The problem I had with it is that, even though it was difficult for him, it didn...more
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Pleasantly surprised. Author did his homework and made this sound like an authentic experience. Peak is the main character, a 14-year-old son of hippie rock climbers who thought it would be cute to name him that. After getting arrested for climbing a New York skyscraper, though, he doesn't think it's so cute staring at prison time. So his estranged dad takes him out of town - WAAAY out of town, to Nepal, to accompany him to the top of Everest. Wouldn't it be cool to be the youngest climber to re...more
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Read in October, 2007
Picked this up as one of the featured books at my book fair this week. I loved it. It was one of those books that you can't put down until you know what happens. Roland Smith is either a climber or has done some outstanding research into climbing in general, and climbing Mt. Everest specifically. The book is exciting to the end, and I like how the subject of writing is used to tell the story as a class assignment. I told all of our upper grade students about the book and it has been flying ...more
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Wow! I could not put this book down - to the point of taking it with me everywhere I went just in case I had a split second to read - including driving across town and a fireworks show - and I LOVE fireworks! The subject matter is simply fascinating on it's own - who doesn't dream of climbing Everest, right? The writing style is also unique - an Into Thin Air (Jon Krakauer), for a younger generation. Oh, and the closing line was phenomenal - one I feel I would write if I found myself on the top ...more
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Read in October, 2007
Named Peak by his obsessed by mountain climbing father, Peak finds himself in court about to be sent to juvenile detention cell, for climbing a skyscrapper. Peak is snapped away to China for an attempt on Mt Everest with his father. Peak can not decide if his father is there to use him or because he thinks Peak can make it. A gripping story with great characters, be sure to read this somewhere warm, because PEAK radiates an icy chill that settles into your bones.
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Read in January, 2007
This book was really great. It's about this kid that climbed skyscrapers in New York. He got arrested and his father(his parents are divorced) takes custody of him. The kid, named Peak gets offered a chance to climb Mount Everest with his dad. If he makes it up before his 15th birthday, he will set the new record for the youngest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest. The book has alot of action, and the characters are really intersting. I highly recommmend this to anyone.
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Read in July, 2008
recommended to Lauren by:
melissa myers
another piece of boy fiction. i really like this author (roland smith) and the voice he gives to young people's thoughts and feelings. i felt they were accurate and a good mix of the bad and the good. this book was about a boy who, through a variety of circumstances, tries to become the youngest person to reach the summit of everest. a very interesting read and one in which so much happens that i was always surprised to see how little i had read but how much i had learned.
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone
I was so close to giving this book 5 stars out of 5! I really enjoyed this story of a boy who is sort of "kidnapped" (but legally) and forced to climb Mt. Everest. It really interested me in climbing and the book was hard to put down! I was a bit disappointed in the ending, though. I guess it had to be the way it was to send the message that the book wanted to send (being youth fiction), but man! Read this book if you get a chance...I think you would enjoy it too!
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