A slippery jumble but not without plenty of thrills.
A scramble into the wild world of rock climbing.
In 2017 free solo climber Alex “The Hon” Honnold climbed Freerider, a route with a ridiculously high hazard rating, without a safety line past fantastically tricky sections with deceptively mild names like the Boulder Problem, 3,000 feet up Yosemite’s slick El Capitan in just under four hours. Readers who stay the course will not only come away with a command of climbing jargon and glimpses of the community of free-range souls who speak it, but will experience a penetrating character study of a full-time rock climber who spends his days going from one challenge to another in locales ranging from Borneo to Chad. Slimming down her author husband’s more detailed account—adding a personal introduction, toning down the language—the adapter tries to position Honnold and his colleagues less as thrill-seekers than athletes pushing human limits. What remains is a patchwork, composed as much of the author’s autobiographical reminiscences about his own early attachment to dangerous feats as anecdotes about Honnold. Young readers may find speculations about whether Honnold has Asperger’s and/or an atypical amygdala more eye-glazing than illuminating. Considering his risky lifestyle, the Hon makes chancy role model material, but his seemingly paradoxical mix of impulsivity and obsessive attention to physical and mental preparation adds nuance and drama to his exploits.
A slippery jumble but not without plenty of thrills. (glossary, sources, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 11-13)Pub Date: Jan. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-20392-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
A well-intentioned description of life before birth. The illustrations make use of photographs (including ultrasound) and artist’s drawings, often in the same image, and these are well used to clarify the text. How babies grow and develop inside the womb is both described and illustrated, and while the tone is one of forced cheer, the information is sound. Also offered are quite silly exercises for children to experience what life in the womb might be like, such as listening to a dishwasher to experience the sounds a baby hears inside its mother’s body, or being held under a towel or blanket by an adult and wiggling about. The getting-together of sperm and egg is lightly passed over, as is the actual process of birth. But children may be mesmerized by the drawings of the growing child inside the mother, and what activities predate their birth dates. Not an essential purchase, but adequate as an addition to the collection. (Picture book/nonfiction. 4-8)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2000
ISBN: 1-894379-01-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Firefly
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2000
In a helter-skelter scrapbook format, Cleare, a veteran mountaineer, profiles five of the world’s most renowned mountains—K2, the Eiger, the Matterhorn, Everest and Mount McKinley—and identifies some of the major historical expeditions to their summits. Top-to-bottom views of each peak are provided via single, double or (for Everest) wall-poster-sized triple foldouts. Along with those, dozens of smaller captioned photos, maps, images or realistic reconstructions depict noted climbers of the past, local wildlife, old- and new-style climbing gear, wind and weather patterns, climbers’ camps, glaciers and rugged landscapes. Likewise, each peak receives an introductory passage of dramatic prose (“Mount McKinley is a colossal, icy complex of ridges, spurs, buttresses, and hanging glaciers,” forming “a crucible of particularly evil weather”). This is accompanied by assemblages of captions and commentary in smaller type that detail its challenges and the often-unhappy history of climbers who faced them. The level of detail is specific enough to include views and comparisons of the actual routes up each mountain, and readers are expected to be clear on the difference between a cirque and a serac, or a “technical” and a “nontechnical” climb. Armchair climbers who can weather the random-feeling arrangement of pictures and the overall absence of narrative flow are in for thrills. (Informational browsing item. 11-13)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7534-6573-8
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Kingfisher
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
