Within Reach: My Everest Story - by Mark Pfetzer and Jack Galvin

Within Reach: My Everest Story - by Mark Pfetzer and Jack Galvin
Ask the audience what they were doing when they were 14. If it's a younger group, ask them what they think they'll be doing. Wait for the answers. Volunteer your own if the audience isn't very responsive. Then ask what they were doing (or will be doing) at 15, and at 16. Then show them one of the pictures in the book of Mark Pfetzer.]

See this guy? His name is Mark Pfetzer. He's a real guy. A few years ago, when he was 14 years old, he was the youngest person ever to climb to the top of Mount Pisco, Peru. When he was 15 he climbed to the summit of Mount Rainier and he was the youngest person to climb to the summit of Ama Dablam, Nepal. When he was 16, he decided to take on Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. It nearly killed him.

How does an ordinary kid (He's not rich or famous and neither are his parents) get to do such extraordinary things? How does he get out of school to climb the highest mountains all over the world? It's all here: Read his true adventures in Within Reach: My Everest Story by Mark Pfetzer and Jack Galvin.

Kim Lafferty, King County Library System

2001 Evergreen Award Nomination