Text title- Everest Book Three THE SUMMIT
Author- Gordon Korman
Text type- Novel
Date read- 14/6/19
The book is about a team of mountaineers with four kids whose goal is to summit Mt. Everest to be on top of the world. Each one of these kids could break the record if they reached the top. However, one of the older kids wanted to be one who broke the record tried to sabotage the others. Coincidentally, a storm hit the mountain, causing chaos to the whole camp.
One of the characters I find interesting was Tilt Crowley. He was one of the four kids that would break the record if they reached the top. However, Tilt was the second youngest meaning that he would not hold the record if the whole team reached the top. To prevent the record escaping from his hands, he had turned Dominic’s oxygen value wide open. That means the youngest kid in the summit team would run out of oxygen before reaching the top, and forced to return. After Tilt summited and returned to camp four, a storm heading towards the mountain was spotted. Dominic and his partner were forced to stay on the mountain as they did not have the time to descent before the storm hit them. They were forced to move behind the mountain without oxygen on an unfamiliar route. At camp four, Tilt has set off to a suicide mission by himself, trying to save the two mountaineers, but Tilt himself was the only casualty of the team. I find this relatable to me. When I was younger, I would envy other people and would try to do things that will benefit me, but I was the only one who was affected.
A message I took from the book is things don’t always go your way, especially on Mt. Everest. When the team was on the mountain, they waited a long time for the bad weather to pass. They almost had to leave and wait for the next season as the weather was too poor. However, a tiny window gave them the opportunity to summit. As they ascent, one of the members had slid and fell a hundred feet, breaking a few ribs but still alive. Tilt had successfully reached the apex and returned to camp. However, Dominic and his partner ran into oxygen issues and got caught in the storm, which was very unfortunate.
‘Do you think your new record has been over-shadowed by Tilt’s death?’ The reporters asked.
Everyone was facing a huge challenge. It was the mountain and themselves. The mountain was extremely dangerous, every step they step on could be a 50 meter drop to death. Their bodies could collapse from oxygen deficiency and fatigue with every step they take. When I was little, I always saw news with titles such as ‘First Hong Kong Citizen to summit Mt. Everest’ or Youngest Hong Kong Citizen to summit Mt. Everest’. These news articles always amaze me. I had always wanted to e a mountaineer, but did not have the equipment nor experience to summit mountains such as Mt. Cook or other mountains with similar conditions.
The title of the text was very straight forward. It describes what the book was about in a simple and plain way. Just by reading the text title, the reader would know the book is about the summit of Mt. Everest, therefore the title was appropriate.
I would recommend this story to people who are interested in mountaineer or ones that have a goal to achieve. This is because the book is written so well, you can almost see what the writer is seeing. It also gives a certain level of motivation to the reader.