BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Author H.G. Wells wrote about time travel in his book “The Time Machine,” but you don’t need a machine to experience history. All you have to do is go to the very place you can find a copy of the Wells classic — the library.
Terrence Davis, a 2010 Bradford High School graduate, hopes to encourage children to visit the library and to develop an interest in reading through his self-published book “Zara and the Time-Traveling Library.” The main character, Zara, is a girl who discovers a discovers a dusty, old book at her local library and is transported to a magical world where books can take her anywhere in time.
Davis said he wanted to give children something to read that was fun and engaging from an educational standpoint, showing them that “literacy is a superpower and that each one of them has the ability to unlock that.”
Zara meets three people during her travels — Hypatia, an ancient-Greek astronomer, mathematician and philosopher, NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson (who was featured in the 2016 book “Hidden Figures” and 2017 movie of the same name) and U.S. figure skater Michelle Kwan, a two-time Olympic medalist and five-time world champion.
Davis said he initially came up with 40-55 people who Zara could meet before settling on Hypatia, Johnson and Kwan. Davis chose Kwan as an athlete a lot of children may not be familiar with, while Hypatia and Johnson were chosen to get children thinking about someone other than sports figures. Plus, as mathematicians, they met Davis’ goal of incorporating STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) concepts in his book.
The choice of three women was made in consideration of Davis’ children.
“I have two daughters, and my wife is pregnant with our third daughter,” he said. “I was like, ‘OK. These are three women who were prominent and who made an impact.’”
As you may imagine, Davis’ children also inspired the character of Zara.
“I’ve always wanted a son, but it doesn’t look like that’s in the plan for me,” Davis said. “I wanted that curious, bright-eyed girl to see the world and be like, ‘I can tackle this. I can solve these problems. I can be innovative and have problem-solving skills.’
“My daughters played a pivotal role in the main character.”
Writing a book was a long time coming
Davis, who has a journalism degree from Florida A&M University, has been writing throughout his life. He said he began writing poetry at the age of 5. Therefore, he said writing his first book was 30 years in the making.
He tried working on a book for years, he said, but he was never able to finish it until he made the writing his main focus.
“I told my wife last year, ‘I’m dedicating the next two months to nothing but writing.’ I started in September,” Davis said. “I just wrote. I woke up at 6 every morning like it was a regular job. I just wrote, wrote, wrote and wrote.”
Davis said he had to get in the mindset of writing for a child, which was difficult.
“I think the hardest part was breaking it down and simplifying words,” Davis said.
It’s not enough to use words that children will understand. Davis said he had to go back and make sure what he was writing would be fun for children to read. He didn’t look at any other children’s books for ideas or inspiration because he didn’t
want to end up using someone else’s ideas.
He did admit, however, he wanted his book to be “adventurous” like “The Boxcar Children,” one of his favorite books growing up.
Yet Davis’ goal is more than just giving children reading his book an adventure. He wants them to continue enjoying adventures in other books and to learn to love reading at a young age.
Davis said he took a trip to Japan and went to a library in Kyoto. In his estimate, 1,000 people were there.
“Everybody had books,” Davis said. “I was like, ‘Let me go to the kids’ section.’ There were 20 kids reading by themselves — no parents around.
“At that moment, I was like, ‘This is what we need. We need this in America because we want to be number one in education.’”
His part in encouraging local children to read became a reality on Oct. 6, when “Zara and Time-Traveling Library,” illustrated by Andi Andriansyah of Turkey, was released. Davis said to himself, “You did it. You became an author — something you had a lifelong dream of. You finally accomplished it.”
On Nov. 15, Davis had the chance to read his book to children at the Bradford County Public Library. It was a surreal moment, going from a child who enjoyed trips to that same library to hosting an author’s event there.
“The reception has been great from the community,” Davis said. “Kids are loving the book. I think it has been very impactful. I hope this character can stick and grow and be inspirational.”
Travels — on the page and for real
Zara’s travels shape her as a person. In turn, she tells her community about her travels, passing on the knowledge she’s learned to others.
Davis is basically a real-life Zara. He enjoys traveling and sharing his adventures with people at home. For example, in Japan, he experienced a culture based upon discipline, while in South America, he saw how important a healthy or organic lifestyle was.
“You start looking at all these things and think, ‘Man, the world has so much to offer in different components,’” Davis said. “How can I take each one of these things and apply it to my lifestyle?”
One of his favorite places he’s traveled to is Croatia.
“That’s a beautiful place to be,” Davis said. “I could write all day there, sitting on their beaches. That was an awesome place to be.
A couple of other places he’s really enjoyed are Berlin, Germany, and Uganda. Places he’d like to go include Egypt and India.
Wherever he travels, he always returns home feeling reinvigorated.
“Traveling brings me so much peace,” Davis said. “I’m always more motivated when I come back home.
The future of Zara
Davis wants to write more books featuring Zara. He said he has ideas of bringing in more characters, such as Zara’s little brother.
He’d like Zara to age in his books as time goes along, much like the characters in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books.
No matter what characters he writes about, or how old they are, you can be sure that they’ll be part of stories that are meaningful to Davis.
“I’m not just putting anything out there,” he said. “I’m putting something out there that I’m super passionate about.”
If anyone else out there wants to put their passion in book form and self-publish, Davis would encourage them to not get discouraged during the process.
“Don’t give up,” he said. “Persevere throughout all the different challenges because there are going to be challenges. Persevere throughout it and write and be your full creative self throughout the process.
“Learn as you go. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Don’t be afraid to put out what you want to give to the world because we need it. You are somebody, and you can bring something special to the world that we all can utilize in some type of capacity.”
