DK has a great formula for introducing topics to kids. Beautiful graphics, excellent layout and good summaries of important facts surrounding their topics.

This would describe this book were its title "Mountains and Mountaineering." Unfortunately, it looks like the Everest title was used to sell more books and jazz up the topic of mountains. Climbing Everest is not discussed until pretty far into the book and then only for a portion of its pages.

That is not to say this is a bad book. The book features the usual compelling DK graphics on mountain formation, life in the mountains, mountain rescues and mountaineering as a generic topic. It does a pretty good job on these. And when it gets specific on Everest it also gives a pretty good summary with interesting graphics.

DK should have properly titled the book. I've browsed their previous edition on Everest (which I think is now out of print) and that was much more focused on the world's highest peak.

That being said, this is a good book, wonderfull illustrated.

A decent addition for your child's library. Just make sure to tell them they are getting a book on mountains including Mt. Everest.

There are dozens of good books out there on climbing Mount Everest - but this is not one of them. This is a book about Rebecca Stephens and it is utterly dreadful. There are absolutely no redeeming features about it; even the photographs are poor. It is possibly a victim of how things have changed re. Mount Everest, in that climbing the mountain is no longer a news item or an heroic feat. We have all read enough to know that money can buy as many summit attempts as you can afford. Back in 1993, pre-1996 disaster there was possibly more of a romance about this mountain and to be the first British woman to climb Mount Everest would I imagine still capture the imagination (in Britain).

You will have to read almost a third of this book before reading anything about actually climbing Mount Everest, and what grim reading that third is. The book reads as though there has been no editorial control excercised at all. There are many 50+ word sentences, and several monsters over 80 words, rendering much of the book unreadable. References to "great dollops of snow" and "dollops of cash" give the book a Famous Five feel to it at times. A particularly poor paragraph had this (British) reviewer cringing, as Stephens gushes about Everest being a particularly "British" mountain. This bizzare xenophobic drivel appears to be based on some guff about the organiser of the expedition that first summitted Everest being British. No matter that Sir Edmund Hilliary was from New Zealand. If you can stomach this sort of tripe you probably have the constitution to climb Mount Everest yourself.

Try Andrew Greig, Jon Krauker, Bonnington, Haston, Scott, et al, before going anywhere near this 1 star rubbish.

They should change the title of this book. It has very little about Mt. Everest in it. You have to get to page 42 before you get more than a mention on Mt. Everest. It has a lot of information, and many photographs, but most have little to do with Everest - like gorillas.