Teenage mountain climber Peak Marcello (Peak, 2008) is back, and this time he’s off to the rugged, remote Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan. Peak, reluctant to find himself in the spotlight again after nearly becoming the youngest climber to summit Everest, has nonetheless agreed to join young climbers from all over the world to make a “Peace Climb,” bankrolled by one of the world’s richest men, for a documentary that is to air Christmas Day.

Surprises await Peak as soon as the helicopter touches down at base camp: an inexperienced and autocratic director; a beautiful French climber; and Zopa, an otherworldly Tibetan Sherpa who guided Peak on Everest. Peak will need all the help he can get when the adventure abruptly turns violent - he is lucky Zopa is there, and his multilingual mother Teri.

Peak is developing intellectual and emotional skills to match his formidable physical ones - in Edge, his powers of observation are exercised almost as much as his quadriceps. —Paula Willey