Maple Tree Press’s Girl Zone series aims to foster healthy physical attitudes in girls of a vulnerable age by encouraging them to take an active role in developing their physical and mental wellness. In this, the fourth volume in the series, pre-teen girls are offered a positive and thorough introduction to yoga.

Author and yoga instructor Michaela Caldwell mixes simple instruction on introductory yoga poses with historical information and lifestyle tips for beginners. Caldwell puts the holistic and emotional benefits of yoga front and centre. Her tips are always age-appropriate, with snack recipes and calming techniques that address common pre-adolescent stress. Caldwell’s sensitivity to her readers’ world is what helps make this book a success. Each chapter gives reasonably detailed instructions on a new pose, with attention to its benefit to the body, along with some yoga history (called a “Yoga M‘ohm’ment”).

There are also well-chosen testimonials from real “yoginis” (girls who practise yoga). On each page, information is broken down into brightly designed and easily readable subsections, with text in varying fonts for a girls’-magazine effect. Illustrator Claudia Dávila’s vivid and boldly drawn girls radiate health and demonstrate each pose simply and naturally. The illustrations exude the same positive, healthy message as the text. Caldwell concludes with a page offering further reading and contacts, and a brief guide to the different types of yoga instruction.

The Girls’ Yoga Book deftly avoids the biggest pitfall of its genre, a cringe-inducing New Age tone, while offering its readers the opportunity to explore the subject without boutique accessories or expectations.