Veteran turns children's book author

GOULDSBORO, MONROE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — It's not often you meet an Army Veteran turn into a children's book author. But Monroe County has produced a good one and his success as a writer is just beginning.

They say you can't judge a book by its cover and 17-year Army Veteran Charles Davis is a good example of that. The Gouldsboro resident recently penned his first book, a children's tale called The Adventures of Leo the Border Collie from PA.

The story is about a super smart farm dog who heads out across the country in search of a lost sheep. Along the way, Leo learns about everything from geography to life lessons and what it takes to make new friends. Davis named his fictional dog after his own border collie.

Davis says although this is his first published book, it's not the first book he's written.

"I was a nerd. I'd take a spiral notebook and a pen and I'd start writing and I wouldn't stop till I was on the back of it. I call that a book and made everybody read it," Davis added.

After a short stint in the National Guard, Davis was an infantry mortarman in the Gulf War. Later, he worked in an anti-terrorist patrol unit in Germany before a medical issue ended his military career.

Davis is now a medical service assistant at the V.A. Medical Center in Bangor, Pennsylvania.

Davis says he wrote "Leo the Border Collie" to help kids navigate an ever-complicated, and often frightening world. He believes kids have enough to deal with just being kids.

"With today's pressure on children that it was time to simplify things and take things back to just using your imagination and just being a kid and not worrying about secular or political adult issues," continued Davis. "From if you're scared, get to a crowd of people. Don't talk to strangers. Are your shoes tied? Look left and right before crossing the street. The simpler things that kids should be worried about."

Davis says his second book is at the publisher and he's already working on a third children's book.
You can find "The Adventure of Leo the Border Collie from PA" on Amazon, Borders.com, and Apple Books.