Book Review: The Yoga Zoo Adventure

A cute book and valuable resource for parents and preschool teachers. This book has a series of exercises suitable for ages 3-7 which are based on traditional yoga poses and activities. The individual activities are designed to engage young children at home or school. They are presented with stories, parables, music, and toy prop suggestions to make them more engaging than simple introspective yoga might be for this age group.The animal themes allow for incorporation with unit studies and related teaching tied to zoos, nature, wildlife, farm life, travel and similar ideas. A section of animal parables is included at the back, and animal facts of interest to young children are sprinkled throughout the book alongside the exercises mentioning those animals. Also included in the concluding sections are brief essays on the importance of zoos in general and on select animals (listed alphabetically) of interest to children, from caterpillars to zebras.This is a worthy addition to the home or early childhood education library, and would make a good gift to preschool educators or primary school physical education professionals.

The Yoga Zoo Adventure: Animal Poses and Games for Little Kids. By Helen Purperhart, illustrations by Barbara van Amelsfort. Hunter House, 2008. ISBN 978-0-89793-505-0