The Edge

October 19, 2015
Eight years have passed since readers met Peak Marcello, the 15-year-old son of famous mountaineers, in Peak, about the Manhattan teen's quest to become the youngest person to scale Mount Everest. In this equally action-packed (but more violent) sequel, Peak has been home from Tibet for just a few months when he joins an even riskier expedition. A secretive billionaire is planning an "International Peace Ascent," involving hundreds of teens simultaneously climbing mountains around the world, with film crews on hand. Peak's group is sent to Afghanistan, and though the narrative is loaded with information about the mechanics of climbing, the specialized gear, and the nuances of the terrain, falling into a crevasse turns out to be the least of Peak's worries. When a fellow climber attracts dangerous, criminal attention, Peak and another climber must engineer a daring rescue mission, a harrowing escape, and, finally, the symbolic ascent that was the reason for their trip. Readers familiar with the first book and newcomers alike will enjoy this trek. Ages 12âup. Agent: Barbara Kouts, Barbara Kouts Agency.

August 1, 2015
Only months after an aborted attempt to summit Everest (Peak, 2007), 15-year-old Peak Marcello travels with his mother and a crew of videographers to Afghanistan to participate in an international peace climb.With 200 climbers from all over the world, climbing in multiple locations around the globe, there are bound to be problems. But for Peak and his fellow climbers, the stakes are particularly high. Even though Afghanistan is not officially at war, its various factions are always at odds and looking for ways to use high-profile events to draw attention to their separate causes. A group of ruthless mercenaries kidnaps several of the climbers, including Peak's mother, and kills many of them. Peak, with guidance from Zopa, the Buddhist monk and climbing master, and Ethan, a fellow climber and daredevil, must track the kidnappers through the desert and rescue the captives before anyone else is killed. While the climbing details are interesting and the setting in Afghanistan is a suitably dangerous and stark backdrop, the story is far from riveting. Awkward pacing, one-dimensional characters, and long stretches of exposition designed to educate readers in climbing minutiae and Afghan history further slow the action. Fails to summit. (Adventure. 12-16)

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July 1, 2015

Gr 6-10-Six months after a perilous attempt to summit Mount Everest in Peak (HMH, 2007), 15-year-old Peak Marcello and a film crew are off to climb the Pamir mountains of Afghanistan. Dubbed the Peace Climb, in which 200 international teens are climbing the world's various mountains simultaneously, the event offers Peak an opportunity to exercise his Spiderman-like skills on something other than the tall buildings in his native New York. Joined by his mother, Teri, an experienced climber who was known as The Fly in her day, and by Zopa, a respected Sherpa friend from Everest, Peak is more focused on the climb than on Afghanistan's outlaw factions, which pose more than a slight travel risk. When kidnappers kill the documentary director and two guides and take Teri, Zopa, and others in the middle of the night, Peak and ex-Marine climber Ethan set out to rescue them. A budding romantic interest in one of the teen hostages, French climber Josette, is one more reason Peak runs into the face of danger with no weapon, no means of communication, and temperature extremes that ensure an untimely death. All the while being tracked by a shen (snow leopard), the unlikely heroes pool their military and outdoor survival knowledge for a nail-biting rescue attempt that will have middle school and older reluctant readers turning pages. VERDICT Extreme sports meets ruthless killers in a survival-of-the-fittest chase.-Vicki Reutter, State University of New York at Cortland

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2015
Fifteen-year-old Peak Marcello, whose earlier adventure (Peak, rev. 5/07) saw him attempting Mount Everest, agrees to participate in a Peace Climbtwo hundred climbers assigned to mountains all over the world for a Christmas television special. He's an accomplished climber, but from the moment he arrives in war-torn Afghanistan, prepared to tackle the Pamirs, things go poorly. As his Sherpa friend Zopa says, Something violent is going to happen here. Sure enough, most of the climbing party, including Peak's mom, are kidnapped, and several climbers are killed; in true Roland Smith fashion, an exciting tale ensues as Peak tracks down the kidnappers. A cagey monk, rifle-toting murderers, treacherous cliffs, a mysterious snow leopard, bald eagles on the attack, and Josette (a pretty French girl with whom Peak is enamored) heighten the action. Italicized first-person present-tense journal entries (an assignment from Peak's English teacher) are sprinkled through the main narrative (also first person but in the past tense), creating an interesting dual storyline. This sequel easily stands by itself, though readers new to Peak's world are likely to be so enthralled by the mountain-climbing action that they will go back to the previous book to tackle Everest with Peak as well. dean schneider

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)