Han’s leisurely paced, somewhat somber narrative revisits several beach-house summers in flashback through the eyes of now 15-year-old Isabel, known to all as Belly.īelly measures her growing self by these summers and by her lifelong relationship with the older boys, her brother and her mother’s best friend’s two sons. Teachers will want to pair this with Mark Pfetzer’s Within Reach: My Everest Story (1998).
This and other elements such as the return of the long-lost father, bite-size chunks of information about climbing and altitude, an all-male cast, competition and suspense (can Peak be the youngest ever to summit Everest, and can he beat out a 14-year-old Nepalese boy who accompanies him?) creates the tough stuff of a “boys read.” The narrative offers enough of a bumpy ride to satisfy thrill seekers, while Peak’s softer reflective quality lends depth and some-but not too much-emotional resonance. Peak must learn to navigate the extreme and exotic terrain but negotiate a code of ethics among men. To save him, his long-lost Everest-trekking dad appears with a plan for the duo to make a life in Katmandu-a smokescreen to make Peak become the youngest person in history to summit Mount Everest. 10-16)ĭare-devil mountain-climber Peak Marcello (14), decides to scale the Woolworth Building and lands in jail.
He offers no easy answers and readers who accompany Victor might be enlightened to some harsh political realities. Hobbs has created a page-turning adventure set squarely in the real world. Events turn out well enough for Victor, but he’s surrounded by violence and death on his journey. Rico tricks Victor into crossing with drug smugglers. He meets up with his friend Rico, who has had problems of his own getting to El Norte. He makes the crossing once with a “lone wolf” named Miguel and is caught and deported. Victor runs into trouble before he even gets to the border. He doesn’t have the $1,500 to pay a “coyote” to shepherd him across, so he’s on his own. He realizes that the only way his family will have the money they need to survive is for him to make the risky border crossing himself. Victor has been making ends meet by growing corn, but governmental subsidies paid to American farmers have cut his profits to near nothing. His father died in a construction accident while working illegally in South Carolina. Fifteen-year-old Mexican Victor Flores is the man of his family.
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