Yoga at the Zoo: Little Mouse Adventures (Little Mouse Adventures (1))

Cute characters and a laid-back, fun setting create a wonderful atmosphere for young listeners to learn a tiny bit about yoga.

Little Mouse lives in a burrow and has a warm, calm life. His best friend, Mr. Opus, is a cat next door and sometimes, they watch the family there practice yoga. Sometimes, Little Mouse even tries the poses himself. When the girl goes to the zoo on a school field trip, he and Mr Opus tag along—Little Mouse is so curious about the other animals! There they not only meet new friends but have a little fun as well.

Little Mouse and his friend, Mr Opus, the cat, are a lovely duo. The book starts with a quick glance at Little Mouse's life in the burrow and visiting Mr. Opus. While many yoga books for kids concentrate show more heavy on the yoga and dive right in, this one takes more of a traditional tale form, allowing Little Mouse and Mr. Opus to develop as true characters. There's a lovely plot as Little Mouse gets a chance to take his first trip to the zoo...leaving yoga as a secondary message, which slides right along with the tale.

The illustrations are very well done and add lots of little details. We enjoyed just gazing at these and enjoying each scene. The characters are nicely depicted and the tale comes to life on every page.

As to the yoga, this book surprised me. While yoga is definitely present and listeners will want to try the poses themselves, the aspect is actually pretty subtle. It's lightly explained that yoga calms and helps clear the mind, but this is built wonderfully into the story and not preached. The different poses aren't delivered in clear, instructive form, but also flow right along with the story. For example, the giraffe stretches his neck to eat leaves, speaks to Little Mouse, who then stretches his neck too. But it's built in so seamlessly, that it's not blatantly clear that they are illustrating a yoga pose. Especially young listeners are lead into yoga in this way without feeling like they're being forced.

This is a great introduction to a series, and it will be fun to see where it goes next and how the author continues in this path. show less

I entered a giveaway a couple of months ago and this is one of the books I won, although I don't quite know *how* as I'm pretty sure this wasn't one of my selections.

Anyway, it's a picture book about a yoga-loving mouse and his cat friend tagging along on a girl's field trip to the zoo; there the mouse sees a variety of animals and assumes poses that mimic them. It almost goes without saying that this isn't about yoga the ancient spiritual discipline, but yoga the means of getting affluent suburbanites to spend money on silly clothes.

Emma Allen's illustrations are cute, but I think the only thing the target audience will get out of this is that they should be allowed to take their pets on field trips, too.

Are you looking for a good book for your children to learn to destressed? Well, Yoga at the Zoo does this though a cute way. Two main animals go on adventures. It quite fun to see and how to learn to calm down using Yoga poses.

Little Mouse sees his human friend and watches her and her mother. You will find this adventure sweet and silly. But maybe some animals do use some Yoga poses. Little Mouse seems intrigued once he hears where his human friend is going with her class. Little Mouse's best friend comes along as well.

The author does quite well with the story. I think the pictures are well done. I love how they show the poses. You will want this book along with the second one for your child or children.

It a good way to teach children show more exercises. It also a good calming yourself as well. show less