Gripping, well-researched, superb entertainment.
Olson details the first three attempts by Americans to summit K2.
K2, at 28,250 feet, is the second-highest mountain in the Himalayan chain and is considered by climbers the most difficult of the over-8,000-meter peaks, of which Everest is the highest. In 1938, when Olson’s gripping tale begins, no one had climbed K2. Medical student Charlie Houston and his handpicked team were tasked by the American Alpine Club to scout a route up K2 so that another team headed by climber Fritz Wiessner could summit the following year. Enduring frigid cold and danger, Houston and another climber reached 26,000 feet before descending. Wiessner’s attempt the following year, plagued by poor management, failed to summit also and resulted in four deaths. Fifteen years later, in 1953, Charlie Houston tried again. Olson writes with assurance and empathy, detailing the nearly unbelievable hardships borne by the climbers and narratively balancing the individuals’ obsession to summit against the humanity of the so-called “brotherhood of the rope”—climbers are roped together, therefore literally dependent on one another for their lives. He takes care to include the porters and Sherpas of these early expeditions—too often considered merely as servants by the wealthy white men who hired them—by including photographs and giving them equal credit in his narrative.
Gripping, well-researched, superb entertainment. (author’s note, sources, notes) (Nonfiction. 10-18)Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-20736-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Scholastic Focus
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Deftly written and informative; a call for vigilance and equality.
An examination of the history of Chinese American experiences.
Blackburn opens with a note to readers about growing up feeling invisible as a multicultural, biracial Chinese American. She notes the tremendous diversity of Chinese American history and writes that this book is a starting point for learning more. The evenly paced narrative starts with the earliest recorded arrival of the Chinese in America in 1834. A teenage girl, whose real name is unknown, arrived in New York Harbor with the Carnes brothers, merchants who imported Chinese goods and put her on display “like an animal in a circus.” The author then examines shifting laws, U.S. and global political and economic climates, and changing societal attitudes. The book introduces the highlighted people—including Yee Ah Tye, Wong Kim Ark, Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, and Vincent Chen—in relation to lawsuits or other transformative events; they also stand as examples for explaining concepts such as racial hierarchy and the model minority myth. Maps, photos, and documents are interspersed throughout. Chapters close with questions that encourage readers to think critically about systems of oppression, actively engage with the material, and draw connections to their own lives. Although the book covers a wide span of history, from the Gold Rush to the rise in anti-Asian hate during the Covid-19 pandemic, it thoroughly explains the various events. Blackburn doesn’t shy away from describing terrible setbacks, but she balances them with examples of solidarity and progress.
Deftly written and informative; a call for vigilance and equality. (resources, bibliography, image credits) (Nonfiction. 10-14)Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9780593567630
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
A superb tale of an era and an effort that forever changed our world.
In late December 1938, German chemist Otto Hahn discovered that uranium atoms could be split, and just a few months later the race to build an atomic bomb was on.
The story unfolds in three parts, covering American attempts to build the bomb, how the Soviets tried to steal American designs and how the Americans tried to keep the Germans from building a bomb. It was the eve of World War II, and the fate of the world was at stake, “[b]ut how was a theoretical physicist supposed to save the world?” It’s a true spy thriller, ranging from the football stadium at the University of Chicago to the mountains of Norway, from the deserts of New Mexico to laboratories in East Tennessee, and all along the way spies in the United States were feeding sensitive information to the KGB. Groups of photographs are sprinkled throughout the volume, offering just enough visual support for the splendid character development in the writing, and thorough documentation is provided in the backmatter. It takes a lot of work to make a complicated subject clear and exciting, and from his prodigious research and storytelling skill, Sheinkin has created a nonfiction story young people will wantto read.
A superb tale of an era and an effort that forever changed our world. (source notes, quotation notes, acknowledgments, photo credits, index) (Nonfiction. 10 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-59643-487-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
PERSPECTIVES
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