296. The Boy Who Conquered Everest: The Jordan Romero Story

The Boy Who Conquered Everest: The Jordan Romero Story by Katherine Blanc with Jordan Romero (Canada) - (US)


Pages: 72
Ages: 9+
Finished: Dec. 28, 2010
First Published: July 30, 2010
Publisher: Balboa Press
Genre: children's, non-fiction, biography
Rating: 4/5



First sentence:

Jordan Romero was a regular 9 year old boy.

Acquired: Received a review copy from the book's publicist.

Reason for Reading: The book sounded inspiring and like something my son would enjoy.

This little book is a treasure and a treat to read! Graphically, the book has been designed in a scrapbook style with each page a pleasing layout of photographs, handwritten and typewritten fonts. The text is minimal at times, presented in chunks at others, and is not a hard read at all but still full of information. This is the story of Jordan Romero, who at 9 years old, wanted to climb the Seven Summits. These are the tallest mountains on each continent, which, of course, includes the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everest. Jordan's father and stepmother were amateur mountain climbers, so this goal wasn't a complete impossibility and with their support and agreement to come along with him his dream became reality. For the next 4 years Jordan trained, gained sponsors and threw fundraisers as he traveled the world completing each summit, until at age 13 he had one left, the tallest, Mount Everest. This climb would make him the youngest person ever to climb the Seven Summits beating the previous holder of the title who completed the climbs at age 17.

An extremely interesting and fascinating story told through text and photographs. Very inspiring and leaves one with a sense of accomplishment and feeling of what one could do oneself. Kids will realize that it is OK to have big dreams and that through hard work one can make dreams, no matter how big or small, come true. A very good, "feel good" story with a positive message for children. The emphasis is on achieving your goals but never does the book lose focus of the hard work and feelings of giving up one must experience to achieve those goals. A good read!