Book overview
For a climber, letting go means certain death. For Atlas, it means something even worse. But he'll have to learn how to let go and look up if he ever wants to see the top...
Twelve-year-old Atlas Wade has been trying to forget the memory of his mother by climbing mountains ever since she died when he was nine years old. When his father signs them up for an expedition group hoping to be the first to ever summit the unconquerable Mount Everest, Atlas can't wait for the chance to prove himself to his father, and maybe finally he can leave his mother behind him on the mountain.
But this time, Atlas is the one left behind, as well as a young American girl named Maddie and their sturdy yet injured Sherpa, Chodak. When news breaks out that war has returned to Europe, and that Nazis are attempting their own summit dangerously nearby, Atlas and Maddie plead with the expedition to come back down.
Their warnings come too late. Atlas looks up that same morning to see an avalanche and when they receive no word from the group, Maddie and Chodak join Atlas as he begins a dangerous journey up the mountain in the hopes of finding survivors.
Atlas, Maddie, and Chodak will have to rely not just on their own wits for survival, but on each other as well, especially as sickness, bad weather, and their fears of a Nazi spy watching them puts their mission -- and lives -- at risk in the brutal terrain. And Atlas will have to learn how to let go if he wants any chance of finding his father and fixing the rift between them caused by his mother's death, before it's too late.
Using one of the world's greatest -- and most infamous -- mountains as a backdrop, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer A. Nielsen's storytelling climbs to new heights in this touching, thrilling epic about grief, letting go, and the bonds that keep us alive.
Accelerated Reading Level 4.8