Helping to improve child literacy rates is not something many people would usually associate with a 270 pound, 6 foot 7 NFL tight-end. However, New England Patriots’ Martellus Bennett is striving to do just that by launching a mobile app to bring his children’s stories to life.
With the help of ‘The Imagination Agency’, a company which Bennett founded himself to enable his ideas, the story has been unveiled through an interactive iOS and Android app.
Entitled ‘Hey A.J’, the story focuses on a young, inquisitive girl and her adventures around breakfast-time. The adventure is certainly a whole world away from the football pitch, and, perhaps importantly, also demonstrates how flawed preconceptions of high-profile sports stars can be.
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Rather than simply following text, a host of different narrators allow kids to read along at their own pace, while also playing a game helping A.J. to make breakfast. Like so many young children’s toys and educational products, it is the interactive element which will aim to make learning more fun and accessible. Bennett and co. will be hoping that they can join the vast number of other companies now coupling learning with technology, as repetitive, old-fashioned teaching techniques continue to become something of the past.
There are no plans to stop there, either. Bennett and his startup have two apps and books lined up for release over the next year, while they are also planning a variety of animated film and TV projects. The plots, storylines, and Bennett’s mind in general, however, are perhaps less easy to predict.
Indeed, the Patriot’s tight-end claims he still has ‘hundreds of characters in his head’, all of whom are waiting patiently in the wings for their time in the limelight. ‘Hey A.J’, therefore, might just be the very beginning.