When I Feel: Easy Yoga for Big Feelings

Kathy Beliveau is a certified yoga instructor, and her passion for the outdoors and making yoga accessible to children is evident throughout the book. When I Feel: Easy Yoga for Big Feelings recognizes that children experience a variety of feelings and emotions that they don’t always know how to express.

The book is playful by incorporating rhyming in the text and by utilizing both real photography and animated visuals on each page. Every scene occurs in nature with a variety of children demonstrating different yoga poses.

The language and yoga poses are appropriate for the intended audience; however, it would be beneficial to see younger children photographed so the readers can see themselves in the book.

Feelings discussed in the book include: worried, anxious, jumpy, scattered, frightened, angry, silly, brave, and tired. Each feeling is connected to a specific yoga pose. For example, when feeling ‘scattered’, children are encouraged to practice tree pose because balancing on one foot encourages the brain to focus on one thing.

At the end of the book, all 10 yoga poses are listed with a visual and an explanation of the associated benefits, making it user friendly. I envision kindergarten teachers using this book as a transition tool between learning experiences in order to promote mindfulness and relaxation in their classroom. Parents/guardians could engage in a read- aloud with their child as a break from virtual learning.

When I Feel: Easy Yoga for Big Feelings is fun, interactive, engaging and age-appropriate.