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Charlie the Genius LOK KAN LEE

Charlie the Genius
Imagine. Create. Share.
Since 2008, the Kids4Kids My Story Creation annual story writing and illustration competition has provided primary students across Hong Kong with a creative platform that enables the budding writers and artists to imagine, create and share their stories.
This story was written and illustrated by kid(s) who participated in the Kids4Kids annual 'My Story Creation competition'. We hope to celebrate all the kids who used their creativity and imagination to create a story by giving them an opportunity to custom print their story, and be able to share and inspire other kids to create their own story.

Charlie was a poor boy living in a tiny shabby house with his grandparents, mother and father. Their life was poor and miserable. Why? They did not have enough to eat. Charlie never travelled. He did not go to school either.

Charlie had no siblings. Since seven, his grandfather had been working in a factory making toffee. When dad was old enough to work in the same factory, Charlie was thinking of turning a new leaf. Could he go to school? Could he travel?

However, life was never smooth. The toffee factory broke the contract. Charlie's grandfather and Dad lost their job. It was the hardest time for the whole family when Christmas came. While people outside were eating turkey, Charlie's family were couching under the blanket, begging for a cup of hot chocolate.

Charlie looked sad. His dream to work in the toffee factory was in vain. The only way to save the factory was to find buyers. It was inevitable as the whole world was in competition. If it went on this kind of life, everyone would die of hunger and cold.

Charlie thought of inventing something which could tackle tooth decay as an outcome of eating too much toffee. Right! Charlie had a quick mind. The buyers were the consumers of toffee.

At the very beginning, the toffee toothpaste did have a good sale. After eating the toffee, people had tooth decay. They needed special toothpaste. The toothpaste with toffee taste was welcomed by many customers. On the shelves of the supermarket, it was always out of stock.

Having a good sale, Charlie continued his creation. He invented the marble mouth rinsing water. The new product had the same toffee taste but of mint look. It was transparent. It helped to prevent tooth decay. There was no need on promotion. The stock was out again.

However, when business turned good, other manufacturers started to copy. There was toothpaste of green apple taste, grassy taste and lime taste. The copied business was on good sale as the products were designed with funny package and weird look.

The fake products flowed into the market continuously. Charlie's business went down. The factory had no money to invent new accessories. Charlie was down, but his genius mind helped him to invent another new idea. Instead of manufacturing, product idea could be sold to pharmacies, enterprises and sold on e-bay.

Charlie did not need to invest a lot on his invention. He just needed to think. Charlie was a brilliant thinker indeed. He was a genius.

Written & illustrated by 文•圖