Peak
Roland Smith's 2007 novel introduces fourteen-year-old Peak Marcello, a Manhattan kid raised by his book-editor mother and his stepfather, who is caught by a New York City judge after climbing a Midtown skyscraper for fun. Facing real juvenile detention, Peak is shipped off instead to live with his estranged biological father, a famous mountaineer named Joshua Wood, who is running a guide business out of Kathmandu. Peak quickly figures out that his father has not pulled him out of trouble for sentimental reasons. If Peak can summit Mount Everest before his fifteenth birthday, he will become the youngest person ever to do it, and Wood Expeditions will get a publicity windfall. The book covers the long acclimatization climb up the Tibetan north side, the politics of the base camps, and a Tibetan boy named Sun-jo whose story complicates everything Peak thought this trip was about. Peak became a popular middle school read and the start of a four-book series.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about Peak
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Fourteen-year-old Peak Marcello is caught climbing a New York skyscraper. To dodge prison, he leaves with his estranged mountaineer father for Tibet, where a summit attempt on Everest is waiting.
Yes. Peak is the first book in Roland Smith's Peak Marcello adventure series. Sequels include The Edge, Ascent, and Descent. Each follows Peak through different mountaineering adventures.
Peak is middle grade and YA crossover, recommended for readers 11 and up. The mountaineering adventure on Everest has been a long-running classroom favorite for adventure-fiction units.
Peak was written by Roland Smith, published in 2007 by Harcourt Paperbacks.
Peak is 264 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Peak takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
Peak is a standalone novel by Roland Smith, not part of a series.
Peak is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.