The Climbers
As seen:
By Keith Gray, and and, Tom Clohosy Cole
avg rating
7 reviews
Heralding his outstanding return to young adult fiction, Keith Gray captures the subtle agonies of teen life in this compelling, bittersweet tale of rivalry and friendship.
In this compelling story of teenage rivalry and friendship, award-winning author Keith Gray captures the subtle agonies and reality of life growing up in a small town.Sully is the best climber in the village. He can scale the Twisted Sister’s tangled branches and clamber up Double Trunker with ease. But when new kid Nottingham shows up and astonishes everyone with his climbing skills, Sully’s status is under threat and there’s only one way to prove who’s best. Sully and Nottingham must race to climb the last unnamed tree. Whoever makes it to the top will become a legend. But something spiteful and ugly has reared its head in Sully … Is it worth losing everything just to reach the top?
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The book is about kids who challenge each other to climb different kinds of trees. The main character Sully is the best tree climber in their village, but when the new kid Nottingham shows up and proves that he can out beat Sully everything takes a crazy turn.
A quick but compelling story for young teens. Packed with emotion and and tension with every creaking branch!
A group of keen tree climbers feel under pressure to climb even taller trees when a newcomer arrives in town. A short dyslexia friendly read with well written characters building towards a tense climax as the trees they climb gets even higher and more challenging.
Not something I would normally choose. Very easy and quick to read. A good book looking at the impact of a 'new' boy into an existing group of children. Lots of emotions. Quick and easy read.
A pacy and thrilling book about a race to climb trees striving to show off and to affirm oneself as the best, this story is ultimately an introspective exploration of the teenage psyche as it confronts the challenges and emotions of growing up and establishing one's own identity. As all of Barrington Stoke's titles, this book is short enough and printed in such a way to make it accessible and enjoyable to even the most reluctant of readers. Recommended to 11+.
This is a great book which deals with bitter rivalry, treacherous acts and friendships. The descriptive passages talking about the actual climbing was fantastic - I could almost feel the rough bark, spiky needles and sharp leaves. Sully and Nottingham are very believable characters; they have their faults but their intitial emnity gradually becomes a friendship. The climb of the final tree is particularly harrowing! I would recommend this to all readers in high school (and it is dyslexia friendly!)
Great short stories are hard to find and this one is perfection. Tightly plotted, unexpected twists, character development and pitched perfectly at a KS3 reader. Keith Gray lets his reader sit just a couple of steps ahead of the main character in understanding himself - so we can see the acts of self sabotage just before they come and really help the reader to understand the force of will need to change. Great story, extremely well written - still thnking about it now.
