Peak by Roland Smith

For my second book of this last nine weeks, I read the novel, Peak by Roland Smith. This book is an adventure story that revolves around the life of Peak Marcello, a fourteen-year old boy whose life is climbing. After being arrested for climbing a skyscraper in New York City, Peak is given a way out of juvenile detention by the judge. He must go with his estranged father to the country of Tibet until his climbing stunt blows over. What Peak does not know is that his father not only wants him to come to Tibet, but he wants him to climb a mountain. The one called Mount Everest. Reaching the summit of Everest has been a dream of Peak's, but once he reaches the mountain, he realizes just how difficult it will be to achieve his goal. As Peak prepares for his climb, he discovers that him reaching the summit carries more weight than just achieving a dream. It's a matter of life and death for not only himself, but for those close to him. I chose this book because it sounded really suspenseful and intriguing. As it turns out, the story was not very heavy on both of these aspects. Peak did have moments of suspense and those moments were what held me to this story. However, most of the book is spent developing the characters in a rather boring fashion. In the story, it was shown that it takes weeks to become used to the high altitudes and extreme cold before an attempt to the summit is even plausible. For me, the plot was the exact same way. The author took so much time leading up to the big climax, which was not that big anyway, that I was tired of reading the book to even care what happened to anyone. Overall, the book too long to get interesting and was a disappointment for me.

What was unique about the setting of the book and how did it enhance or take away from the story?

The setting of Peak was definitely unique. It took place on Mount Everest, one of the tallest mountains in the world. One positive aspect that the author brought to this book was how he described the rigors of Mount Everest. When one thinks of climbing Everest, it seems like it would be hard, but not a matter of life and death. As Peak comes to find out, by climbing the mountain, you are basically throwing your life to chance. One of the climbing instructors tells Peak "You can never tell who the mountain will allow and who it will not...". That statement sums up the risk people take when they climb Everest. Its not a joyride to the summit. It takes endurance, will, and some stupidity to make it all the way to the top. The author did a great job painting the picture of just how hard it is to reach the summit of Everest.

How do characters change or evolve throughout the story? What events trigger such changes?

At the beginning of the story, Peak basically hates his dad. His father left his mom when he was born and has not really contacted them at all until Peak's arrest. When Peak leaves for Tibet with his father, he still doesn't trust him. As the weeks go by on the mountain, the relationship between Peak and his dad goes up and down. Sometimes, they seem to have everything fixed. Then, one of them does something and it all crumbles. By the end, however, Peak comes to understand his dad and accept him for who he is. His father ends up doing the same for his son.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

The first book I read for this nine weeks was The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. This book is the first one of the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which contains five books in all. The book is of the fantasy/adventure genre and was very compelling for me. The story is about a 12-year old boy named Percy Jackson, who thinks he is a normal kid. He is greatly mistaken and finds out he is actually a demigod. What is a demigod? A demigod is the offspring of a mortal human and one of the Olympian gods or goddesses from Greek mythology. As Percy starts to realize who he is, he finds out that Zeus, the head god, has been robbed of his most prized possession: his master lightning bolt. To make things worse, Zeus is blaming Percy for the crime. Zeus tells Percy that he has ten days to return the bolt or he will destroy the mortal world. With the entire human race at stake, Percy, along with two companions, sets off to find out who really took the bolt and return it to Zeus by the deadline. I really enjoyed reading this book. The plot was totally original and kept me interested the entire book. The author mixed humor and action perfectly to create a deep, but light theme around the plot. The characters are developed well and you can easily relate to the main protagonists of the story. One aspect of the book that I really liked was how the author took a lot of subplots and tied them together. Although some of them did not completely tie up in this book, the remaining books in the series bring everything together without confusing the reader. For example, there is a prophecy is hinted at throughout this entire first book. From the hints, this prophecy seems to carry a lot of weight on how the rest of the series is going to work out. The author, however, never fully explains what the prophecy is in this book. This created a lot of suspense for me and it hooked me into reading the rest of the series. Creating subplots and tying them together in an easily understandable way is a difficult task to do in writing. However, the author definitely nailed it here.

Do the characters seem real and believable? Can you relate to their predicaments? To what extent do they remind you of yourself or someone you know?

I thought the characters in the book were very realistic. Besides the fact that they were half-god, half-human, they thought and acted as any other normal human would. Not all of their predicaments were totally out-of-this-world either. For instance, one of the main characters has to deal with division in the home because her stepmother hates her. You don't have to be a demigod to experience that situation. Unfortunately, anybody is prone to those circumstances. I can relate to Percy in some ways. For example, Percy has to switch schools constantly because of his demigod powers. He has to go through the "new school" experience a lot. I've gone through that a couple times myself.

How do characters change or evolve throughout the story? What events trigger such changes?

At the beginning of the story, Percy meets a girl named Annabeth, a fellow demigod. They don't really get along at first. Annabeth sees Percy as an inexperienced little kid, even though they are close in age. She doesn't trust him and never really opens up to him. Then, they are both sent on the same quest and go through a lot of dangerous situations that bring them closer together. By the end of the story, Annabeth still isn't confident she can trust Percy, but she does open up to him a little more than before.