Reaching the Summit: Sir Edmund Hillary's Story

Working closely with the author of the highly acclaimed Sir Edmund Hillary- An Extraordinary Life, writer David Larsen has produced a readable, exciting book aimed at young readers in the 9-14 age range. Reaching the Summit follows in the tradition of successful recent books about Burt Munro and Sir Peter Blake, transforming bestselling adult books into accessible texts for younger readers. In Reaching the Summit the emphasis is at all times on high adventure. The book tells the story of the young Ed Hillary growing up in the Waikato, his increasing love of climbing and the outdoors, his early climbs and growing reputation, then the Everest expedition and the ascent on Mt Everest itself. It describes in gripping fashion the successful assault on the summit by Hillary and Tensing Norgay, and the aftermath. Reaching the Summit then goes with Hillary to Antarctica and the trek to the South Pole, then summarises the rest of his life.

Winner of Storylines Notable New Zealand Books: Non Fiction 2008
Commended for New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards: Non-Fiction Award 2008

Alexa Johnston is a writer and independent art curator. After working for nineteen years as a curator at Auckland Art Gallery, in 2002 she was curator of the exhibition Sir Edmund Hillary- Everest and Beyond for Auckland Museum. Her first book, Sir Edmund Hillary- An Extraordinary Life - a definitive biography of the legendary New Zealand mountaineer - was a finalist in the Montana Book Awards. An enthusiastic and accomplished baker from a young age, Alexa has published three cookbooks celebrating New Zealand's culinary history. The first Ladies, a Plate (2008) won a Montana Book Award, the Publishers' Association of New Zealand Award for Best Illustrated Book and was Recipe Book of the Year in the New Zealand Guild of Food Writers Culinary Quill Awards. This was followed by A Second Helping (2009) and What's For Pudding? (2011) and in 2012 a hardback collectors' edition of her baking recipes, Ladies, a Plate- The Collection (2012). For her latest book, Ladies, a Plate- Jams and Preserves, Alexa turns her attention to a once-essential branch of domestic cookery and makes a convincing case for bringing it back to the centre of our kitchen activities. Alexa Johnston makes and tests all the recipes for her cook books - and takes all the photographs - in her home kitchen in Auckland.

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