The always-supportive, ultra-generous, tireless, best-ever Tomlin PTSA board has awarded our class the funds to purchase a class set of 26 hardcover copies of the award-winning adventure novel Peak by Roland Smith.
(Can you tell we have been writing sentences with series of adjectives in class?)
The books arrived from Scholastic today, and Peak is scheduled for May 2008 to be our final focus novel of the year. Several students in our class have read Peak already this year, and all of them have given the book high ratings.
"[When] Peak Marcello is arrested for scaling a New York City skyscraper, he's left with two choices: wither away in Juvenile Detention or go live with his long-lost father, who runs a climbing company in Thailand. But Peak quickly learns that his father's renewed interest in him has strings attached. Big strings. He wants Peak to be the youngest person to reach the Everest summit--and his motives are selfish at best. Even so, for a climbing addict like Peak, tackling Everest is the challenge of a lifetime. But it's also one that could cost him his life."
Video: Roland Smith Introduces Peak
Further background on the mini-grant . . .
A few weeks ago Tomlin PTSA president, Mrs. Sharon Ours, caught me in the parking lot and encouraged me to apply for a PTSA mini-grant, letting me know that funds were still available. One reason I had not applied earlier was because Tomlin PTSA had been so generous to me last year when they contributed to the expenses for my Holocaust Summer Seminar in Poland and Israel. This award was completely unsolicited and unexpected, and PTSA surprised me when they presented me with a substantial check at the faculty luncheon during pre-planning last year. When I remembered that hardcover copies of Peak were available from Scholastic for $5.95 each, I decided to submit a mini-grant application to the PTSA for a classroom set. The rest is recent history.
Thanks again, Tomlin PTSA! You are the BEST!
