[Music] Welcome to Between the Covers summer series where we put the spotlight on our South Florida authors.

Hi, I'm Anne Bocock and I am so excited to welcome Brandon Bryant, NFL football defensive end and children's book author.

He's just released his second children's book, Can I Pet Dog?

You played college football in South Florida at FAU.

You had a career in the NFL.

So, how do you go from football field to children's author?

So, um it was something that I always wanted to do.

Um not necessarily write children's books, but just to write and to see my work out there.

I didn't necessarily think it would ever happen, but you know, actually during the pandemic, I got the idea to do it and go through with it.

And then four years later, I finally was able to self-publish the book.

The first book is called So You Want to Be an Athlete.

Now, granted, this is the dream of little kids.

I don't know the stats, but very few people make it to your level.

What did you want to stress with with that book?

I wanted to stress that it can be done.

It's going to be very hard.

Everybody can do it, but everybody won't do it.

the people who will succeed and you know be able to go far in the world of athletics are going to people that are going to be the people that work very hard and have a plan.

And I also wanted to stress the importance of academics in the book.

Well, I'm going to go back to.. for a second because for the kids that that really want this, they want that college scholarship.

They want to get into the NFL.

There's only a few slots here.

Yeah.

Yeah.

there's a few slots and there's uh the the stat is something like a fraction of a percent of every you know high school athlete actually goes to play division one.

So it is kind of a one ina million kind of thing.

So you know as I said I just wanted it to be known everyone can everyone you know we talk about talent and god-given abilities and all these things but the thing that's often overlooked is the effort that we put in.

You know, everyone thinks that all these guys in the NFL, they're just they they're there because they were born this way and it's it's just they're in their destiny, but nobody really understands how hard these people work at a young age.

You know, the people that we see on TV and we see how great they are, we only see the finished product.

We don't realize that they've been working day after day since, you know, sixth, seventh grade.

The second book, the the the latest book, Can I Pet Dog?

Sweet book.

Great question.

As a dog mom myself, I wish all parents would teach that to their kids.

Talk about that book.

Yeah.

Can I pet That dog?

I wanted to have a fun story, a funny story, a back and forth, very repetitive, which is, as we all know, it's very important for young kids to gain the confidence in reading to have just a repetitive a repetitive phrase over and over, you know, within a book.

So, I wanted that to have that repetitiveness uh to breed that familiarity with kids.

But also, it's a great story about bite prevention and consent.

So, I wanted to have a fun story, like I said, repetitive, and I wanted to have an actual message.

So, in this case, it's bite prevention and consent.

Kids know, you know, maybe a kid has a dog at home, and their dog's friendly, lovely, you know, furry animal, you know, goofball, full of joy.

But every dog isn't like that.

You know, these dogs have different personalities and hey, maybe the dog is just like us.

Maybe the dog's having a bad day.

So, it's important to ask, can I pet that dog?

I love the.. asking, can I pet the I mean, over and finally, but there is a happy ending.

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, Brandon, there is a literacy problem in this country.

There are lots of reasons why, but you have pointed out if a kid falls behind in grade level reading.

This is going to follow him or her for a lifetime.

Yes.

So, you know, they say that if a child isn't reading proficiently by fourth grade, they most likely never will.

And if they aren't reading proficiently, what else can you do?

How can you learn how to code a computer?

How can you be a nurse, a doctor, a lawyer if you can't read, you don't have these basic skills?

And also the other dangers that you're putting yourself, you know, in in, you know, a statistic waiting to happen.

Teenage pregnancy, homelessness, incarceration, the stats are they're there and they're overwhelming and it's all something that can be prevented, you know, if we just, you know, we all, you know, do our part to get these kids, you know, more involved in reading and in literature.

Is that the passion with what you're doing now to foster literacy?

Yes.

Yes, that is that is the passion.

I think it's it's one small thing I can do to make sure that, you know, I'm helping out the generation after me, you know, being a a better place than, you know, what we currently see.

Well, from where I sit, what you're doing isn't small.

Were you the outlier, the football star who was also a good student and a good reader?

So I became a good student in high school.

I was I was I was well educated.

I was, you know, I would consider myself an intelligent an intelligent kid or an intelligent student, but I just didn't see the value in it.

I didn't care.

I was under the impression that, hey, I'm good at football.

This is what I want to do.

If I do this and I succeed, then who cares about school?

And that was my thought process maybe until like 10th grade, you know, not obviously not my entire life, but probably ninth tth grade.

I just, you know, I I fell behind and I remember my GPA was like uh I had like I had a 1.3 GPA uh my ninth and tth grade year in high school.

Um then I get to FAU my junior senior year in high school I you know got the ball rolling and then in college my I I left FAU with a 3.75 GPA and I had a 4.0 actually my final two semesters.

Talk about turning it around.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Turned and it was it was simply just because of effort.

I realized that, you know, this this is something that that has to be done and I and I put that effort for forth and there it is, you know.

So, what's tougher, the pressure in the fourth quarter or trying to instill a love of literacy in first graders?

Definitely definitely the fourth quarter.

The fourth quarter is tough because you know it there's so much riding on it.

You got you know a million people watching the game.

But you know I would say although that that is more of a pressure situation getting a kid to enjoy reading and to enjoy your book is definitely more rewarding.

What's the best feedback that you've ever gotten from the kids or from their parents?

So from the parents I've gotten you know a couple you know highlights that I just can't forget.

And one is that every once in a while a parent comes up to me and they honestly say this, it's not a joke.

This is his first and only book or his or her first or only book and he or she loves it.

You know, they have books at school that read at school, but they just didn't have any books at home and this is his first book.

he loves it and you know he doesn't put it down you know or you know just in that same breath you know when when they when they say you know hey it's it's it's their favorite book or you know my my kid just you know he was in a similar situation what I just explained or hey I couldn't get it I couldn't my kid couldn't understand that there's more to life than sports and that you have to have that academic piece but this book is helping me teach them that.

So, you know, those two things are are are you know, I love to hear it.

You hear that and you know.. right path.

Yes.

What would young Brandon Bryant think of this man here sitting in front of me who is a children's author?

I think he would be proud.

I think he'll be happy.

Um, and I think he would I think he would be inspired and maybe if he would have saw this at a younger age, he would have been a better student sooner.

I hope you keep this up and I hope there's a lot more books down the pike.

Thank you.

I am so excited that you've moved into children's books.

You are going to have such an impact on this young generation.

I can't wait to see what's next.

The titles are, "So, you want to be an athlete and can I pet that dog?"

Brandon, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you... I'm Anne Bocock.

Please join me on the next Between the Covers.