Peak

In a slight change for me, I would like to recommend a realistic fiction story.
Peak, by Roland Smith, is a story about a teenage boy who lives in New York City with his mom, stepdad, and twin sisters. The story starts out as Peak is scaling a very tall building to leave his mark at the top. Just as he reaches the top, police enter the picture and haul him off to jail. When it comes time for the court to rule what to do with this juvenile delinquent, an offer is made for Peak to go with his biological father to climb Mount Everest.

Peak has never met his father before. He doesn't understand why his father has come to see him and is untrusting at first. Peak sadly has to say goodbye to his family, but it winds up being all for the best. Now he will have to serve no jail time. In order to get up Mount Everest, Peak must get acclimated to how to climb and endure some horrible weather. He begins learning from a Tibetan monk who will be climbing with Peak and his father. Alongside Peak is Sunjo, who will be like Peak's sherpa. Many challenges face the group as they begin to climb the mountain. One challenge that the group keeps meeting is a Chinese general who will stop at nothing to eliminate any unauthorized people from climbing the mountain.

In this book, you find out that the climb up Everest is not a straight climb up, but a treacherous journey that involves climbing up the mountain part way, then climbing back down before you can continue up. The other thing is that to get to the peak is not an easy task. The conditions have to be just right, and those conditions do not last for very long. Peak is an enjoyable book about a person's experience climbing Mount Everest. You could read it at 3rd grade, but expect to explain a lot of what is happening to your kids.