By Colorado Kids Advisory Board member Dakota Metzger

Title: Everest Book One: The Contest
Author: Gordon Korman
Illustrator: none
Publisher: Scholastic
Number of pages: 138

Everest Book One: The Contest, is part of a three part series, all by Gordon Korman.

This book is about an energy food company called Summit Athletic that plans an expedition called SummitQuest for publicity. They select twenty kids under seventeen who compete to be the final team of four to climb Mt. Everest. To qualify to get there, they either won a bottle cap contest, or were the best from the American Junior Alpine Association. Before they go to Mt. Everest they need to go to boot camp to train. The weakest kids will gradually get washed out (cut). The boot camp is were the story takes place. It is Summit Athletic's Training Facility in High Falls, Colorado.

The main character is 13-year-old Dominic Alexis. He is small for his age and got to boot camp as a contest winner. He will have to try hard to be able to go to Mt. Everest.

I really enjoyed this book. There isn't any thing I didn't enjoy about it. It was exciting, it taught me a lot about climbing, and a couple of parts were kind of funny. I liked that they were in Colorado. If you enjoy this book, you will most certainly enjoy Everest Book Two: The Climb, and Book Three: The Summit.

I recommend this book very highly. Both boys and girls would enjoy it. I think 9 and up will enjoy this book. Even my dad is reading it. (December, 2002)