To the Top!: Adventures of a Small Town Boy

To the Top!

Adventures of a Small Town Boy

This prequel to A Boy A Bike Alaska! introduces readers to eighth-grade Jack Iverson as he experiences a year of adventures.

Time for a change

Jack Iverson had always loved to read exciting books and talk his best friends Davie and Trevor into acting out the adventures. But the summer before eighth grade, things started to change. It was time to have some real-life adventures of their own in their hometown of Mt. Shasta, California. It started with digging a makeshift backyard pool with his Dad and ended with climbing Mt. Shasta with his Mom. It was a year he would never forget.

"Look out world. Here I come!"

From hard work to fun with his friends, Jack always had a positive attitude and found plenty of adventures along the way.

Building a tree fort in a very tall tree and experiencing the terrifying exhilaration of swaying in the windSpending the night alone in the woodsImproving his baseball gameRescuing Davie from a floodHelping catch a thiefGetting to know the new girl next doorLearning how to build and sail a boat

Life was never dull, and that year was just the beginning of Jack's thirst for adventure.

Warren Carlson began his adventurous life when, at age fourteen, he slept alone in the woods for the first time and discovered that the world was a friendly and beautiful place. Other adventures followed: climbing Mt. Shasta three times and Mt. Ranier once; solitary hikes in several national parks; alpine excursions in France, Switzerland, Spain, and Azerbaijan; Peace Corps Volunteer in the middle east; travel to India, Kashmir, Turkey, Ireland, England and yes, a solitary motorcycle ride to Alaska where he met some of the characters depicted in this book while others have been made up or transferred from other adventures.Carlson describes himself as a job vagabond. His employment adventures include ski instructor, actor-director-playwright, special needs teacher, newspaper reporter, carpenter, cowboy, ski area management, house designer and builder, and tour guide in three national parks.His literary credits include numerous short stories and poetry. (Northern Journeys, Spectrum, Jefferson Journal and others.) His plays have been produced in several venues including Spokane Repertory, Spokane, Washington; Actors' Theatre, Ashland, Oregon; and the Metta Theatre, Taos, New Mexico. He holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of California, Santa Barbara.