Are you a Fish or a Pretzel?

STARTING off my new year with a resolution to keep up with my blog and to do some new reviews...inspired this time by Kerry from Picture Books and Pirouettes - thank you Kerry!


One of the Barefoot Books bestsellers and one of my own personal favourites is 'My Daddy is a Pretzel'. I know this is super popular with Yoga teachers and enthusiasts all over the place and it always proves popular at my stalls due to it's fantastic graphics and catchy title!

Written by renowned teacher Baron Baptiste and illustrated by Sophie Fatus we start off with a lovely introduction from the writer who explains where he is coming from on the yoga front and from the beginning of the story we have the most fantasticly colourful and wonderful pictures. I always say I love the way Sophie Fatus draws eyes, they are wide and bright and convey lots of different meanings although they are very simply drawn. We love them!

Back to the story though....the children in the book each say what their mummys or daddys do and as one child's daddy does yoga, each job is likened to a yoga pose. Great idea! So one mummy is a gardener and the yoga daddy's equivalent is being a tree....vet translates to being a dog....builder translates to being a bridge...farmer translates to being a plough...he can even be a fish! (guess the job....marine biologist!)

 

We see a lovely scene depicting the job, then on the next pages we have quick and fairly easy instructions on how to do the pose along with what the pose represents or teaches us.








Our favourite poses - we had a great laugh being planes (slightly wobbly ones), triangles (slightly squint ones), lions (not very scary ones) and of course pretzels (slightly odd ones).

 

Practising the poses with my girls did remind me of my younger yoga days...I started when I was about 12....when we thought it was hilarious standing on our shoulders and trying not to giggle. I have to admit my yoga days are long gone (sooo looking forward to when they start again!) but being a plough this morning took me right back!

Baron Baptiste aims to guide us on our path to a vital, happy and healthy life. Well I have to say being a mum of 3 lively girls, I strive for this every day. Most of the time, I run round in circles and don't always (well actually hardly ever!) achieve this, but reading books like this together helps us a little on our way...

The book ties in with the popular Yoga Pretzels card deck - a pack of 50 Fun Yoga Activities for Kids and Grownups. Very handy for nursery and primary school fun or for dipping into activities at home. I feel another review coming on!!