I feared that Stones into Schools, like many other sequels, will just be a repetition of its predecessor. However, I was surprised to find that this book is a lot better. (Yes, I realize that I rated both Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools four stars. The reason is because I couldn’t rate Stones into Schools five stars since only my most favorite books receive that, and I couldn’t rate Three Cups of Tea three stars because the generous work of Greg Mortenson didn’t deserve that. Rating books from a scale of 1 to 5 isn’t very effective sometimes, see?)
Anyway, the style of prose considerably improved from the first book, and the switch to first person point of view gave a stronger voice to the novel. In Stones into Schools, Greg Mortenson and his CAI organization’s mission to build schools for children expands from the mountainous and remote areas of Pakistan to its bordering country, Afghanistan. Following his policy of “last person first,” Mortenson will confront with his greatest challenge ever: to build a school on the “Rooftop of the World” at the elevation of 12,480 feet in the heart of the Taliban regime. Powerful and inspiring, this is the story of a failed K2 mountain climber who happened to take a wrong turn and has ever since devoted his life to promoting peace through books, not bombs.