Three Cups of Tea (Young Reader's Edition)One Man's Journey to Change the World. . . One Child at a Time

Building schools in a warzone
Three Cups of Tea begins with an odd sort of confession: straightaway, journalist David Oliver Relin admits that this book about mountaineer and philanthropist Greg Mortenson will be far from unbiased. True to his word, Relin lays it on a little thick throughout his chronicle of Mortenson's attempts to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Yet it's a testament to his subject that rarely does the praise feel undeserved.

Motenson's story begins on the slopes of the mountain known as K2. Often considered a more difficult climb than its neighbor, Mt. Everest, K2 is about to claim the life of a French climber when Mortenson abandons his own bid to reach the summit to save the climber's life. Subsequently, Mortenson himself becomes lost while returning to civilization and only escapes death thanks to the generosity of some villagers in Korphe, Afghanistan. Overcome with gratitude, Mortenson pledges to build them a school to replace the sticks and dirt they've been using to learn math.

Thus begins Mortenson's years-long quest to build schools (nearly 80 to date) in some of the most dangerous and impoverished parts of Central Asia. School-building may not sound like the stuff of high adventure, but it is here: as with the riveting account of Mortenson on K2, Three Cups of Tea is filled with page-turners, like the story of when the philanthropist is kidnapped by Taliban sympathizers. What distinguishes Three Cups from other books on the region post-9/11 is its wide vantage (Mortenson was building schools a decade before the Towers fell) and Mortenson's intense personal charisma, which continually offers hope that cultural divides can be overcome by a little optimism and understanding.