The Adventures of Charlie Tres

This is a novel for teens. It is the story of 13-year-old Charlie Edison Olson III, aka Charlie Tres`, in pre-Depression America.

Charlie takes a voyage with his father, Charles Edison Olson II, to find new raw material and markets for their factories in New York and New Jersey. They are separated for one full year. With the help of a 12-year-old Southeast Asian girl and her grandfather of the rainforest, they must survive until they are rescued. Poachers and would-be kidnappers add to their struggle.

It is a wonderful story, set in idyllic locations that promote the ideas of the unvanquished human spirit, the beauty of nature, the complicated emotions of children. As the children await rescue, such profound ideas as the true meaning of friendship, the ugliness of bullying, the importance of finding happiness, rejection of victimhood, accepting others, and more are revealed as the children grow and learn in the company of nature.

Although the story is set in the year 1928, it is as modern as today, for as the world changes and new inventions are discovered, as new baseball teams go to the World Series, some things never change. Chief among them is human nature. Human nature drives some of us to delve into our darker nature while others seek to become better. The adventures of the shipwrecked teens inspire them to the latter. The experiences of the children may inspire all children to seek to know themselves better, press to higher heights, consider the feelings and experiences of others, reject victimhood, respect nature, and know that we are all merely actors on the stage of life. Hopefully listeners will come to understand that their role is to find peace and happiness in its simplest terms, respect differences, allow others to grow, and know that they, too, are okay, even special in their own way.