Review Detail

Every Bunny is a Yoga Bunny

Kids Indie 248

Make like a tree... and breathe

March 12, 2024

Overall rating

4.3

Plot

5.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

YoYo is an exuberant young bunny who has trouble settling down. Even at bedtime, she has a lot of trouble not wiggling and giggling. Her Grandpa has a good idea; he will teach YoYo and other little bunnies how to do yoga. YoYo tries, but the grass tickles her bottom, she rolls around too much when doing bridge pose, and jumps around when trying to be a calm mountain. When the group is doing tree pose, YoYo spots a butterfly and is soon running off to chase it. She gets lost deep in the woods, and is scared and anxious. She tries some of the poses that Grandpa taught her, and breathes in and out. This calms her down, and she is able to remember her way home. After all of the exercise of getting home, she is able to join the other bunnies who are sitting and breathing. Even though she still has some trouble calming herself down, she now has new tools to regulate her behavior and to help her get to sleep at night. The end of the book gives directions for six traditional beginner yoga poses.

Good Points

Young readers will understand YoYo's inability to sit still, and will probably want to act out her wiggles and giggles along with the yoga poses. I love that her grandfather is the one teaching her this discipline; it would have been all too easy to default to a woman instructor. I also really enjoyed seeing how YoYo used her new found skills in a situation when she was particularly anxious, and seeing how they were able to focus her and help her.

Allwright's illustrations are quite fun, and the woods and burrows where the bunnies sleep are delightful. When YoYo gets lost in the woods, the palette changes to a gray brown background of trees that is a big change.

This would be a great book to use while teaching yoga to young children, or for a mindfulness library story time. Other books on the topic include Carle's Calm with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Thompson's Deep Breaths, Nance's Puppy Mind, and my favorite, Gravel's quirky Puppy in My Head.