Peak is a 14-year-old boy from New York. After Peak is caught climbing the Woolworth Building ( a tall skyscraper), an angry judge gives him probation, with an understanding that Peak will leave New York and live with his famous mountaineer father in Thailand. Peak soon learns, however, that his father has other plans for him; he hopes that Peak will become the youngest person to climb Mt. Everest. Peak is whisked off to Tibet and finds himself in the complex world of an Everest base camp, where large amounts of money are at stake and climbing operations offer people an often-deadly shot at the summit. This is a thrilling, multifaceted adventure story. Smith includes plenty of mountaineering facts told in vivid detail (particularly creepy is his description of the frozen corpses that litter the mountain).
Grade Level: 6 and up
Categories: Adventure and Survival
Gemma Stone has a lot going on in her life. She falls for a boy who barely knows she exists, auditions for the school play, is the love interest of Raven De Head, a notorious boy in school, and her sister is getting married into a family of military freaks. This book is delightfully comedic with a plot line that teaches kids to look again and appreciate people for who they are. As Gemma tells the reader about her life, she forges a friendship with Raven De Head and begins to realize that he and his family are not the family that everyone in town thinks they are.
Grade Level: 6 and up
Categories: Realistic Fiction
Jaiden Beale has been asked to attend an early morning conference and to his surprise the the PowerPoint presentation begins with “Jaiden Beale Dating Options IQ.”
When Jaiden’s parents were warming his baby bottle the stove exploded. The infant had no relatives to raise him but he did have a big fat settlement from the company which was found responsible for the explosion, the NECorp. The lawyers were able to stall paying off the settlement by giving NECorp guardianship of baby Jaiden. Jaiden’s bedroom suite is at corporate headquarter and a team of executives has been charged with managing his upbringing including his dating life now that he’s a teenager. Grade 8+
Categories: Humor · Realistic Fiction
