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. 12-15)ĭare-devil mountain-climber Peak Marcello (14), decides to scale the Woolworth Building and lands in jail. Most readers will wish for a Harold Horvath–focused sequel, or a cookbook detailing Francie’s scrumptious-sounding recipes. Overplotting ensures that no single strand of the story reaches a completely satisfying conclusion, and readers will recognize the stock characters and familiar situations, but Fergus makes the main lessons-true passions are worth pursuing, real friends stick by each other and failure can yield inspiring opportunities-ring true enough. This drama doesn’t ever reach a satisfying pitch, however, because there are too many competing narrative threads: The mean girls’ plot threatens to overtake Francie’s quest for fame as a celebrity baker, which is facilitated in part by a slow-burn romance with hilarious oddball Harold Horvath. Darlene is a frenemy par excellence, sowing jealousy and discontent in Francie and Holly’s solid friendship and manipulating Francie into one humiliating situation after another. Talented baker-entrepreneur Francie’s comfortable perch at the margins of ninth-grade social life-half-heartedly playing clarinet in Performance Band to ensure class time with best friend Holly, flirting surreptitiously with adorable dolt Tate Jarvis-is upended by the unnervingly self-possessed newcomer Darlene.

Recipe for disaster by maureen fergus