You Wouldn't Want to Climb Mount Everest!

by Ian Graham, David Antram (Illustrator)

This lively, interactive series will enthrall young and reluctant readers by making them part of the story, inviting them to become the main character and revel in the gory, dark, horrific side of life during important eras in history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Childrens

32 pages, Library Binding

First published September 1, 2010

About the author

After working as an in-house journalist and editor in consumer electronics magazines, Ian Graham became a freelance writer. He has written more than 230 illustrated non-fiction books for children and teens, and contributed chapters to books including Dorling Kindersley’s Know it All and Big Ideas that Changed the World. He has a degree in applied physics and a postgraduate diploma in journalism.

Reviews

[Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

mount Everest is supper cold and i recommend this book if u wan to learn about climbing mountains.

never go alone and always have warm clothes

[Tim]

Storm Mountain, Tom Birdseye, 2010.

While You Wouldn't... contains factual information about climbing a specific mountain, albeit in a somewhat humorous comic-like tone, Storm Mountain chronicles the story of two cousins' quest to scatter their fathers' ashes on the same mountain that killed them. While Mount Everest is much taller and more challenging than the mountain described in the novel, the characters encounter similar problems, avalanches, crevasses, and blizzards, that climbers could encounter on a real mountain. That Storm Mountain is told from a teen's point of view makes it even more engaging for young readers.

You Wouldn't... is set up in a "description" format, where the author provides information to help the reader learn details and facts about the topic. It would be easy to create a Venn Diagram activity for the two books where students compared and contrasted the experiences of climbers of Everest and of the characters in Storm Mountain.

(2010, November 1). Booklist. http://www.booksinprint2.com.leo.lib....#

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for homeschooling. It puts the readers in the shoes of a member of the first British expedition to reach Everest’s summit. My boys appreciated the helpful hints (though it convinced them that this is not on their bucket lists of things to do), and I appreciated that the Sherpas got well-deserved credit.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I definitely won't be doing that in this lifetime.

[Sharlet Mullen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very wordy yet a wealth of information on how people prepare to climb mount Everest. Shows on a map the location, elevations, history of the mountain, struggles and victories.

[Karen Arendt · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cartoonish illustrations detract a little from the text. The book focuses mostly on an expedition to climb Everest in 1953.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book in this series. I loved reading about all the things climbers had to take with them to climb. I wish there was more info about Hillary and Tenzing at the summit.

[Kelly Carey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book would be a good companion to the Everest series by Gordon Korman.

[Zenia Rivera]

The story starts off in second person letting the reader pretend that it was actually them and that they are the rock climber that might soon climb Mount Everest. It talks about where the name for that mountain had come from which came from a man named Sir George Everest who led the Great Trigonometric survey of India for some period of time. There are also images that provide what each part of the mountain is called as well as reminding the reader about important safety measures that have to be taken when climbing a mountain. Another thing that it talks about bringing a sufficient team, the kind of tents to bring when and how important it is to have a base camp and make sure not to be taken into the dead zone which is another thing that could potentially happen when climbing a snowy mountain. It is also important to be able to take breaks as well as prepare yourself for a very large journey. It lets the reader know that the first people to reach the south summit were Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans on May 8th. Another important factor was that they had been running low of oxygen as the higher that you climb the less amount of oxygen there is in the air.

This book is not anything that I have read before when it comes to informational books. I loved the detail of the illustration throughout the story. The pictures really help me better understand the challenge of climbing such a high mountain. In a way it is written in a way that makes it seem like if the reader ever wants to climb Mount Everest these are the steps that you would have to take. Not only that, but it also gives a lot of history about the first climbers, the facts when it comes to climbing in general and how something like this is not easy. It does bring a comical side to it which probably keeps young readers more interested. This book brings its own wittiness as well as remaining informative for the reader, even during some of the parts of reading this book I forgot that it was an informational book in the first place.