Middle Grade Monday: One Wrong Step by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Image: Scholastic Inc.

One Wrong Step by Jennifer A. Nielsen. 336 p. Scholastic Press/ Scholastic Inc. March, 2025. 9781338275865. Review of finished copy courtesy of publisher. 

Middle Grade Monday features One Wrong Step by Jennifer A. Nielsen. For the last three years, it has been just Atlas and his dad. His dad is a map-maker and mountaineer and the two have been climbing together for most of Atlas' life. In fact, they were away climbing when Atlas' mother died, something Atlas can't quite forgive his father for. 

In 1939, Atlas and his father join an expedition to Mount Everest. Atlas has brought along a scarf his mother knit for him, hoping to place it at the top of the world and also hoping to find some peace. His hopes are dashed when he's informed that he's not going to leave advance base camp. The organizer of the trip was not happy that he's tagging along and puts his foot down.

When Atlas sees an avalanche near where the climbing party would be and then loses radio contact with them, he decides to mount a rescue. How can he, a sherpa and the inexperienced daughter of a researcher scale the most dangerous part of Mount Everest? 

Major suspension of belief is required here, but the intended audience will buy in. Each chapter begins with a mountaineering definition and a map showing where Atlas is. The chapters are short and suspenseful. 

Fans of Ms. Nielsen's books will not be disappointed.

#tbt: Peak by Roland Smith

Image: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Peak by Roland Smith. 256 p. Peak #1. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007. 9780152024178. (Own)

Happy Thursday! #tbt features Peak by Roland Smith. Fourteen-year-old Peak Marcello lives up to his name even though he has moved to New York City. There are skyscrapers to conquer and tag. His is a blue peak. After he is caught and arrested, he's facing a trial and time in juvie, but his father swoops back into his life with a deal. Peak can come to live with him in Katmandu. Peak's dad owns a mountain climbing business shepherding rich climbers to the top of the world - Mount Everest. Could Peak's dad have ulterior motives? Peak has already achieved fame/ notoriety as "Spider Boy" in the media. How about youngest climber to summit Everest?

This novel is a real page turner. Readers who strive for adventure need look no further - adrenaline rushes abound. Peak was published in 2007 and has been popular among TMS students. It was named a YALSA "Quick Pick for Reluctant Reader" as well as a "Best Book for Young Adults" and quite a few State Awards. I'm not entirely certain that this book was intended as a series, but a sequel, The Edge, was written and published in 2015. This was followed by another, Ascent, in 2018 and Descent, in 2020.

Fact Friday: Into the Clouds: the race to climb the world's most dangerous mountain by Tod Olson

Image: Scholastic

Into the Clouds: the race to climb the world's most dangerous mountain by Tod Olson. 270 p. Scholastic Focus/ Scholastic Inc., April 21, 2020. 9781338207361. (Review of arc courtesy of Blue Slip Media.)

Fact Friday wishes a happy book birthday next Tuesday to Into the Clouds: the race to climb the world's most dangerous mountain by Tod Olson. Olson recounts three U.S. attempts to climb Karakoram, or K2 during the 1930s and later in the 1950s. K2 is the second highest peak after Mount Everest. They are part of the Himalaya mountain chain that includes the highest and most inhospitable peaks in the world. While Everest is the highest, K2 is deemed the most dangerous by mountaineers.

It took me a little while to get the players straight and I would've been helped by a map, which is going to be in the finished book, but wasn't available in the arc. Once I got there, I was transfixed. Olson's writing is lucid and utterly gripping. I was surprised by how invested I had become and totally astonished by the tears that threatened a few times! 

Equally engrossing are the black and white photos that document the climbs. Most of them are clear and almost Ansel Adams-esque, giving the reader a glimpse into the treacherous and starkly beautiful terrain as well as the often precarious positions the climbers found themselves in - such as finding sufficient land flat enough to pitch a tent and be assured they would not fly off the mountain! 

The impeccable research is evident in the twenty-plus pages of back matter that includes a plethora of books, magazine and newspaper articles, blogs, videos, archival sources and interviews. There are also source notes for each chapter. 

As a person who couldn't summit Mt. Democrat, the most easily scaled fourteener in Colorado (it's a day hike!*), I am in a mixture of total awe and bemusement at those who climb extremely high or dangerous peaks. It has been awhile since I've read any books like this and Into the Clouds has reignited my curiosity about mountain climbing and other activity done at extremely cold temperatures. I read Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer long before I joined Goodreads and that sparked a binge of Mount Everest- and then Arctic exploration-reading that confirmed my complete incapacity to climb mountains or explore the Poles. 

I might've read Into the Clouds in one intense sitting were it not for work. As it was, I almost stayed up late to finish the last thirty pages but put it off till I was awake and refreshed the following morning to truly appreciate the bittersweet conclusion. I broke my self-imposed rule to stop giving stars on GR to give it five. I really loved it. And I think kids will too. Our sixth graders read Peak by Roland Smith and they love it so much that they fight over its sequels. Into the Clouds would make a terrific fiction/ nonfiction pairing! 

Tod Olson is the author of the narrative nonfiction series, LOST, and the historical fiction series How to Get Rich. He has written for national magazines on the Columbine school shooting, homeless teens, the murder of Matthew Shepard, and many other stories of interest to children and young adults. Tod holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and lives in Vermont with his family, his mountain bike, and his electric reclining chair. To learn more, and to download free teaching resources, visit his website: todolson.com.


*As my mountain-boy son, who was my guide that day on Mt. Democrat, assured me, I was not yet acclimated to the altitude and would've made it if I had a few more days to do so. He was a counselor at the mountain-climbing camp he had attended from the age of ten; so he was completely at home, hiking easily without any trouble breathing or even breaking a sweat. He scouted paths up the scree at the top and was so encouraging to his old mama as I panted and rested and panted and rested. 

#tbt: Peak by Roland Smith

Peak by Roland Smith. 247 p. Harcourt Inc., September, 2007. 9780152024178. (Own.)

When fourteen-year-old Peak Marcello was facing jail time for repeatedly attempting to climb skyscrapers, his estranged father flies in from Nepal with a proposition for the court: he will take Peak to Mt. Everest on his latest expedition. His father's ulterior motive is the desire to get Peak to summit Everest and become the youngest person to do so. Summiting Everest is no walk in the park and Smith brings the harsh, unforgiving conditions to vivid life. In 2015, he published a sequel, The Edge, and in Ascent was published in 2018. If you like books set in the wild outdoors featuring characters portraying grit and determination, check out Peak and its sequels.

Non-fiction Monday: No Summit Out of Sight by Jordan Romero

No Summit Out of Sight: the true story of the youngest person to climb the Seven Summits by Jordan Romero with Linda LeBlanc. 355 p. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, May, 2014. 9781476709628. (purchased)

In May of 2010, Romero became the youngest person to climb the seven (eight) highest summits on each continent. There is some dispute over which the Australian summit is, so he did both. This dream was inspired by a mural of the seven summits that he saw at his school when he was nine. With the help of his father and stepmother, who are professional "extreme" athletes, Romero trained to become a mountain climber. 

He began with Kilimanjaro, and, at age ten set the record for as the youngest to climb the mountain. He broke records for most of his climbs save for one. He methodically and earnestly chronicles each climb, including the type of training he had to undergo, and the fundraising he did,  through the sometimes grueling application for climbing permits, to the successful summit. Along the way, he also takes time to describe the people and culture of each place. 

While the young man is to be admired for his accomplishments and his tenacity, there is a bit of smug superiority in the telling and an awful lot of boring in-between the summits. There weren't many photos either. His team, made up of his dad and stepmother and some rotating athlete friends, was "perfect." His mom stayed happily at home worrying and cheering. The sponsors were altruistic. There was no conflict. No ulterior motives. The few moments of self-doubt were magicked away by a pep talk from his stepmother. All the other teams paled in comparison to their lean, mean climbing machine team. It all got a little twee for me.

Still. The dude climbed all those mountains and wrote his story. Teen readers will be inspired and his healthy eating/ exercise message is a good one. A worthy addition - particularly if memoirs is covered by your LA department as my students have to read one in eighth grade. 

The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart

The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart. 240 p. Scholastic Inc., January 27, 2015. 9780545665735. (Review from arc provided by publisher)

Twelve-year-old Mark has spent most of his short life battling cancer and has just received word that it's back and it's bad. He's done now. All he wants to do is take his dog and climb Mount Rainier, a trip his grandpa promised him once he got better. But Grandpa died and Mark isn't getting better so he's going. Now. Despite the fact that it's winter. Despite the fact that he's never climbed a mountain. Despite the fact that his medicine makes him nauseous but if he doesn't take it he gets blinding headaches. 

Mark's quite the little schemer. He purchases a bogus bus ticket, ditches his clothes and takes the train wearing a backpack containing about a hundred dollars, his camera and trusty notebook into which he writes haiku. He carries Beau, his dog, in a duffle. He tells no one of his plans, not even his best friend, Jessie. But he does leave a message in their secret place. Once Jessie pieces the clues together, she's in a bit of a fix morally. While she wants to honor Mark's wishes, she aches for his heartbroken parents especially when a snowstorm bears down on the area.

Her POV is told in half-chapters. They are short and intense. His chapters are marked by miles from his destination. While his journey is not easy, suspension of belief is required especially if one is familiar with terminal illness, mountain climbing in general and Mount Rainier in particular. Gemeinhart was smart and kept details suitably vague. Young readers won't notice. The book will have wide appeal - from readers who love weepies to those who want adventure/ survival to those who want a story with a great dog. I must admit to feeling a tad angry at Mark, not for what he put his parents through (well, maybe a bit) but for what he put his dog through. That dog, man, what a great dog.

Confession time. I wasn't eager to read this book - yet another cancer book. This one being compared to TFIOS, a book I did not particularly care for, didn't make me want to read it either. In fact, the cover colors sort of evokes TFIOS. Add to that the knee-jerk reaction I get to HYPE and, well, I just was not rushing to read it. Perhaps my own recent pas de deux with the disease added to my disinclination. Also I think I'm a bit hard on cancer books going all the way back to me at 14 reading Love Story with rolling eyes instead of crying eyes. (Well, maybe a little.) Nursing school and my first career as a nurse added to my propensity to be hard on these books. Don't get me wrong. I love a good cry over a book but a cancer book has to be amazing for me to love it. 

Oh, I will cry. It doesn't take much to get me bawling. I just won't love the cancer book. It's too dang easy to write. Most adult readers have some experience with the disease and bring their own emotions that are all too easily tapped. Writing a good cancer book for kids, especially middle grade kids, which is where The Honest Truth is being marketed, is trickier. I can think of only three I would call amazing: Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie, (okay four, its companion, After Ever After) by Jordan Sonnenblick; Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nichols and Me, Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews. The first three told compelling stories while nailing the medicine and showing the disease in all its messy ugliness but staying solidly middle grade. Me, Earl and the Dying Girl, is solidly YA and is perhaps one of the bravest cancer books for its irreverence and rather unlikeable main character.

Oh, contemplating an unlikeable main character made me think of a fifth memorable cancer book - Jenny Downham's Before I Die. Oh! How I raged at Tessa! I read it with my ears while shoveling about seven inches of snow off my driveway. I was so involved in Tessa's story, the driveway was done and I didn't remember doing it. Of course, I got her motivation but she still wreaked havoc on her poor devoted dad. I didn't like her and felt guilty for not liking her because she was dying for crying out loud. And this is is a good time to circle back to Mark and The Honest Truth because this is a review of that book for crying out loud. 

While Mark did not reach the level of unlike-ability for me that Tessa did, I am clearly reacting to the choices of both teens as a parent. Actually, I didn't dislike Mark. I just found his decision incredibly selfish and impulsive and poorly planned. Kids won't. So add The Honest Truth to your school or public library collection and get out there booktalking it. I booktalked the book without reading it first (something I rarely do) back in early December. I had an extra arc so I gave it to the eighth grade LA teacher who brought her classes in for the booktalks. She reports it hasn't been back on her shelf since. Trust me, it'll be a go-to book. And do keep an eye out for this promising author's sophomore book. Not too much pressure, eh Mr. Gemeinhart?