“Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver
Book Review: by Adrian, grade 7
The non-fiction book “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin is a story about Greg Mortenson who devotes his life to building schools for children in Pakistan. His story will leave the reader amazed at the hardships he encounters and moved by the courage he demonstrates in order to fulfill his promise.
The story begins in 1993 when Greg Mortenson, a mountaineer, attempts to climb a mountain called K2, in Pakistan, in order to pay tribute to his sister after she passes away. After being separated from the team of mountaineers that he was traveling with, Greg gets lost and nearly dies of exposure. He finds his way to a remote village where he is nursed back to health by the friendly villagers. After he recovers, he wants to repay the people for their hospitality. He sees that there are no school facilities and that the village children are not receiving a proper education. Therefore, he promises to return and build a school in the village. Greg returns home to the United States and begins to raise money in order to construct the school. After building the school for the village, other villages soon begin asking Greg to also provide schools for them. This need launches his quest to continue building schools all over Pakistan and later Afghanistan.
Greg’s plan to build schools may sound easy so far, but it was far more challenging than one could imagine. For one, he was poor and raising money was difficult. He didn’t even have a house so he lived in his car. He also encounters resistance from a powerful and hostile chief who halts his plans to continue building schools for girls. Greg even needed a body guard to protect him from those who were opposed to his work. The terrain of Pakistan proved to be difficult to travel because of war-beaten roads. These are just a few of the hardships that Greg experiences during his journey in order to provide education for the children of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Despite these challenges, Greg Mortenson succeeds in building over 50 schools over the next 10 years in the war-torn country of Pakistan.
This book is so well written that the reader will not be able to put it down. The writer keeps the reader absorbed in the book by taking the reader along on a roller coaster adventure of fear, sadness, violence, delight, poverty, anxiety, love, hatred and unexpected surprises. This book lacks nothing. It is amazing because it proves that a common person in a foreign country can stand up and say “I want to fix this”, and then find the courage to accomplish it.
