Mountains to Climb

by Richard M. Wainwright, Jack Crompton (Illustrator)

Roberto spends two years in the U.S. with his one-eyed llama and overcomes prejudice against him and two physically disabled students.

57 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1990

Reviews

[C.]

Mountains to Climb is a fantastic children’s book. The main character is Roberto, who lives in South America. Roberto is a kind and gentle boy with a loving family. Roberto helps raise llamas, and the next lama birth will result in his very own baby llama. Soon after, he gets teased about his baby llama and farmer’s clothing. Roberto gets to visit the USA and take his pet. In the USA, he gets more teasing but uses the lessons from his family to rise above adversity and teach others about compassion.

I listened to the audiobook, so I cannot comment on the pictures. This book had me smiling, closing my eyes, and picturing a different life. 1 am looking forward to reading this book with children. I highly recommend it and truly enjoyed the complete story.

[Cesar Lopez]

Mountains to climb is the story of a young boy who befriends a llama. The boy is invited to live with his uncle in the United States along with his llama. Six weeks after arriving in the U.S. it is time for roberto to start his first day of school. After getting on the bus with some unusually colorful clothes the other students began to laugh at him. Roberto then makes friends by standing up in front of the class and talking about how he was treated different because of how he looked and dressed. After being invited to a camping trip by his new friends the groups instructor falls and injures himself. Roberto immediately goes into action and saves the teacher with help from his friends. After the incident at the hiking trip two "disabled" boys ask to join the group. At first the group is not sure about letting them join but roberto trust they will be able to keep up and persuades the group to let them join. Two years pass and roberto and consuelo return home with new wonderful memories of this once new land.

[Terry]

This is a beautiful story complemented by incredible illustrations. This is a picture book that verges on being a chapter book because of the amount of text. Although bringing Consuelo to the United States seems out of the ordinary, it works (and is important) for the story. I also liked how the story showed the different forms of discrimination, handicap, and prejudice can take.

Read why we think Roberto will make kids think in the full review.

[Nestor Panchez]

" Roberto's eyes were open but he remained snuggled beneath the thick alpaca blanket knowing his mother would soon call him for breakfast." In this childrens book Richard M. Wainright shows a good amount of visual imagery.