The Yoga Ogre – Peter Bentley & Simon Rickerty

I always find it funny how at just two years of age Little Miss C very much knows her own mind about things. When I first flicked through the review copy of The Yoga Ogre that I was sent I wasn’t too sure about it at all and wasn’t convinced that it would appeal to LMC. How wrong I was! We’d picked up the parcel containing it from the sorting office and for the car journey home she was engrossed in it (and the second book in the parcel) and was shouting out all the things that she was spotting in the pictures. Now she regularly asks for it as one of her bedtime books.

The story is based around the idea of healthy living and exercise – Ogden the Ogre needs to lose some weight as his pyjamas are too tight so he tries out lots of different sports including yoga in an attempt to do so. Ball games don’t go so well though and the horses aren’t too keen about the idea of an overweight ogre being their jockey. A yoga class at the local town hall is fun, but the town hall itself doesn’t come out of the experience intact!

I wasn’t sure that LMC would quite understand what yoga is, but a brief explanation and she now points out what all the people in the pictures are doing in their yoga class. She also likes spotting all the other different sports in the book and also the damage that the ogre has done. 

The book certainly reinforces the role of exercise in helping people lose weight and I can see that being particularly useful for some children. Whether or not they will also understand what yoga is I’m not sure – but with Waybaloo being as popular as it is I may be wrong on that too!

Disclaimer: I was sent a review copy of The Yoga Ogre by publishers Simon and Schuster.