The Boy Who Conquered Everest, by Blanc & Romero

The Boy Who Conquered Everest tells the story of Jordan Romero's climb of most of the seven summits, including Mount Everest in 2010 at the age of 13, in a book by Katherine Blanc and Romero. It's aimed at young audiences, with a lot of graphics, basic prose, and a few spreads dedicated to his preparation and each of his climbs up to Everest and a longer section dedicated to the big one. The book is styled after a travel scrapbook, with snapshot-style photos and some catchy formatting. Most of the prose comes from his blog, though there are a couple sections written as background or explanation around his climbs and some basic facts about each of the mountains he climbs. He ends up ascending Kilimanjaro, Kosciusko, Elbrus, McKinley, Carstensz Pyramid, and then Everest. As of today, there is still no news of Vinson on his website. I'm a little curious what's keeping him away.

Jordan Romero climbed Everest in the pre-monsoon season of 2010 from the north side via the North Col and Northeast Ridge. His ascent makes him both the youngest to climb Everest and part of the first family to climb it together. He is the climber that ousted Arjun Vajpai from the youngest non-Sherpa climber record only hours after Vajpai's ascent (read about it in his On Top of the World), and Ming Kipa Sherpa from the overall title. I wish I could tell you what was different about climbing Everest as a teenager based on this book, but the information in it is pretty basic. His parents were keeping a very close eye on his health, and I also noticed that he climbed direct from Camp III with only a food, liquid, and oxygen refill at IV rather than spending the night at that very high altitude. I assume both of these were due at least partly to his age. Overall, this is a decent book. The only thing that really bugged me was the title (with the "conquered" thing). Though there was very little said about the mountain or its history in this book, I found it refreshing to read a kids' book about Everest without scores of factual errors in it!