By Serena Ewasiuk
Two at the Top: A Shared Dream of Everest by Uma Krishnaswami with illustrations by Christopher Corr is a colourful and engaging children’s story about two boys from different parts of the world who share a love of the outdoors and a dream of climbing huge mountains when they grow up. The story begins by introducing Tenzing and Edmund and continues with their alternating points of view. Tenzing lives in Nepal and Edmund lives in New Zealand. We learn unique details of their childhoods and the paths their separate lives take before they attempt to summit Mount Everest. Finally, after several failed attempts, the two men climb Mount Everest together and succeed.
Of course, we are talking about Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, who achieved their lifelong goal of climbing to the top of Mount Everest and became the first humans to do so.
Two at the Top is a story of perseverance, dedication, and bravery. The writing is poetic and will grab young readers’ attention with descriptive phrases like ”The battling winds roared like a thousand tigers.” The illustrations are eye-catching with bright, vivid, colours and really drew in my young child. He wanted to know more about the animals in the pictures and the sports that young Tenzing and Edmund were playing. He asked about the prayer flags and the tools the climbers used.
An interesting feature of the book is the inclusion of detailed facts about Mount Everest and Tenzing and Hillary’s famous trek at the end of the story. Topics include how to measure the height of mountains, details of the impressive mountain ranges of China and Nepal, the number of people needed to support a climbing expedition, and the animals who make their homes at the base of the mountains.
Two at the Top: A Shared Dream of Everest is intended for children from three to five years of age, but in my opinion it would be better suited to children a bit older who would like to immerse themselves in geography and social studies to better understand this region of the world and the challenging expedition of Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary.
Thank you to Groundwood books for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.