Everest Series by Gordon Korman
Soo-oo Good!
Reading Level: 4th grade
Would be great for older boys with lower reading skills too.
Trilogy and each is less then 150 pages!
Mount Everest: The highest mountain in the world. The ultimate climb. For four lucky mountaineers it will be their chance to be the youngest person to ever reach the summit.
The mountain has claimed the lives of many adults, so the American Junior Alpine Association hosts a competition of intensive training to weed out the real talent from the wanna-be's. This climbing contest began as a competition. Some are not ready for what they face, while others will stop at nothing to reach the top. Once on the mountain things turn life or death where no one is guaranteed to survive!
This series was so good!
And plausible! Info from Wikipedia says,
"The highest mountain in the world attracts climbers of all levels, from well experienced mountaineers to novice climbers willing to pay substantial sums to professional mountain guides to complete a successful climb."
In book 3: The Summit there is alot of talk about the Ice Falls.
Here is an actual picture.
CLICK HERE- to read an article of a real 13 year old, reaching the summit of Everest!
How to extend the story:
Take boys to a rock wall to try their hand at climbing. I would recommend this and give your boys some experience with grips and ropes. Introduce some vocabulary of common climbing equipment. (Belaying, crevasses, and crampons).
Go for a hike, climb the biggest "mountain" hill in your area- name it something really gnarly! When I was on my High School Cross Country team we had a regular run with a huge hill- we nicknamed Old Nasty. It really did add to our sense of accomplishment- knowing if we could run up Old Nasty we would be able to handle any hill at the State tournament!
If you have scouters this series would be great for the Boy Scouts Mountaineering Merit Badge and Hiking Requirements pg 263, Webelos Outdoorsman Hiking requirements pg 362, or page 107 for Bears- go on a Hike with your family.
Great Field trips or family trips: This series introduces some popular climbs/mountains like El Capitan in Yosemite
If you ever go on a "field trip" here.. could you invite me! ;o) Just thought the boys might like to see pictures of these mountains mentioned in the story.
The Matterhorn
and Annapurna
