An adventurous, inspirational journey through the pleasures and benefits of yoga
You are one step—or maybe one pose—away from meeting your true self. You Yoga: Finding Your Inner Shine celebrates all that yoga has to offer in this spiritually inspiring picture book about a squirrel finding himself and sharing his shine with the creatures around him.
The unnamed squirrel in You Yoga is an adventurous, sweetly illustrated critter who’s always got a mat on their back and is always ready to unfurl it, whether they’re setting off through the woods or flying through the sky on an owl. The illustrations of this little squirrel doing yoga in their various natural surroundings, like inside a shelter of sticks under a dark gray sky, are among the book’s most affecting attributes. Your little yogi will love watching this little friend venture through the habitat and make time and space for something that’s clearly so important to them—yoga.
“On or off your mat, you’re a star! May YOU carry your peace wherever you are.”
The text on the page is filled with inspiration. It celebrates the joy and impact of practicing yoga and praises the great light hiding inside each and every one of us, no matter how small we are. This book could be a great companion for parents, guardians, and teachers who want to pair reading with the activity of yoga itself. One thing’s for sure: this will definitely get little ones excited to try.
“Yoga is magic, a gift just for YOU—
It helps YOU feel calm, strong, and true.”
It’s not necessarily a book that educates so much as it inspires. It might drop a few hints as to the types of movements kids can take to start doing yoga—like standing tall like a mountain or bending to touch your toes—but it might lack the application you’re looking for if you’re hoping for something a little more informational. The language can get advanced in some spaces too, and the rhyming can reach a bit too far, leaving littler readers too far on the outside of deep understanding.
The book doesn’t need to educate exactly—that’s not really the goal here—but the inspiration does get a touch repetitive over time. We know pretty quickly that yoga is about using your body, breathing, stretching, and letting your inner light shine, but we continue discussing these things after already covering them pretty early on. Without story or further information, You Yoga pulls up short in its applicability and fits most neatly in kids’ books on spirituality.
You Yoga is a loving ode to the transformative power of yoga. As a companion piece to go along with the practice itself, this book will motivate little ones to move their bodies, breathe their way to calmness, and find their spiritual center.
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