Book Review: To the Top of Everest

The book does a good job of giving you the geography, the lay of the land. We learn what country Mount Everest is in. (It's actually on the border between Nepal and Tibet.) We learn what times of year are the best times to climb the mountain. (This book did it in July.)

Possibly the thing I like the most about this book is the way it is laid out: It's very clean, it has lots of helpful and informative pictures, and it has lots of white space in the margins that helps you focus on what you should be focusing on--the words and pictures.

Remember the yak on the previous page? Here's the cutline that describes it. It has a helpful red arrow that points from the text to the picture, so you always know what's describing what.

In the end, the author makes it to the summit, but not before a handful of people he trained for years with have died. The author reminds us that climbing Mount Everest is very dangerous and shouldn't be attempted by someone who doesn't know what he or she is doing. Still, for those who do, it's an experience worth showing. And this book shows (and tells) it very well. I highly recommend this book!

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Graphics courtesy of National Geographic