About Us

One Third Stories is excited to partner with Odyssey to share the joy of learning a new language through stories! Meet Jen and Darren…

animated Photo of Darren And Jen

Jennifer loved school – especially learning and reading about people from different times and places – so it isn’t too surprising that she grew up to become a social studies teacher. When she became a mother, bedtime stories were a favorite nightly ritual. Eventually, Jennifer decided that she wanted to share her passion for reading with students and other teachers and she earned her master’s degree in literacy. After working with students and teachers at almost every grade level, Jennifer is thrilled to be part of One Third Stories. She and Darren are excited to carry on Alex and Jonny’s vision and share new stories and ideas with our readers.

As a child, Darren learned Latin because he was fascinated by how English words were built from ancient roots. In high school he learned Spanish but he was uninspired by the heavy memorization that was required by the curriculum, so little of what he learned ‘stuck’.  His excitement for learning about how things were built carried over to college where he studied engineering and management. It was not until his career had him traveling in Spain and South America that he realized what a lost opportunity his high school Spanish classes were.  Now at One Third Stories, Darren has recaptured his early fascination with languages and hopes to help a new generation of young readers to find a joy of language learning that will last a lifetime.

Our Founding Story

One Third Stories was founded by two best friends who had two very different experiences of learning languages growing up.

Animated picture of Alex and Jonny
Alex spent much of his childhood in Paraguay, raised bilingual in English and Spanish. For Alex, languages have always been accessible and fun, and he’s now in the process of learning his fifth language. Jonny, however, hated languages. He received a quintessentially British language education at school: dense, grammar-heavy textbooks that sucked the joy out of the whole experience. He would ask his parents for help, but unfortunately they had had the same experience too.

One thing that Jonny did have a passion for, though, was stories. So he and Alex hatched a plan. They would combine Alex’s linguistic know-how with Jonny’s love of literature, and embark on a mission to make sure that kids everywhere have the chance to grow up bilingual. The plan? To put another language on every child’s bookshelf, and use the magic of storytelling to make kids fall in love with learning languages. One Third Stories was born!

My cart
Your cart is empty.

Looks like you haven't made a choice yet.