My First Animal Moves ~ A Review

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Welcome to the book tour for My First Animal Moves by Darryl Edwards. The book to get children and parents moving!

Overview

My First Animal Moves: A children’s book to encourage children and their parents to move more, sit less, and decrease screen time.

Genre: Children’s Books/ Sports/ Illustrated Books

Publication Date: 20th September 2021

Publisher: Explorer Publishing

Nathan loves to play, but he loves his video games more.

Can a trip to Animal Moves Land convince him there’s more fun outdoors? Best-selling author and speaker Darryl Edwards has created this fun adventure, inspired by his passion for encouraging children to move in an ever-increasing sedentary environment.

MY FIRST ANIMAL MOVES

Discover the joys of animal moves in this book of movement. Join Nathan and Lola, his cute, but sometimes lazy, dog as they have fun reenacting animal movements, crawling, jumping and balancing their way through the animal kingdom.

HELPING CHILDREN HAVE FUN MOVING THROUGH FUN ANIMAL PLAY

✓ Do you want to make physical activity for children fun?

✓ Are you looking for ways to help your children develop strength, coordination and balance?

✓ Do your children love learning about animals?

✓ Are you worried about too much TV and screen time?

✓ Do you want to teach young children about the importance of physical activity?

✓ Would you like easy and fun fitness games to include in your day?

My First Animal Moves is your answer. Play along together, keeping everyone healthier and happier, promoting physical, mental and emotional well-being. You’ll all release more mood-enhancing hormones as a result, which help you feel good every day.

The book is written by professional movement coach and award-winning author Darryl Edwards best known for his groundbreaking TED Talk “Why working out isn’t working out“, viewed over a million times worldwide. My First Animal Moves distils the ideas in his bestselling Animal Moves book and Animal Moves Fitness Decks into a colourful picture book for children.

My First Animal Moves is available on Amazon (UK) and Amazon (US).

Review

We both read this book with our young son, who loved it. The pictures are colourful and engaging, and the text easy to follow. Nathan and Lola meet many animals on their adventure, learning different moves as they go.

I particularly like the combination of story with movement. In that respect, it is an immersive adventure, which captures the imagination. The moves are straightforward and fun to follow, and easily memorised.

Participants are encouraged to adapt moves to suit their skill level. The monkey, for example, climbs too high for Nathan to follow safely. So the monkey advises Nathan to find something suited to his climbing ability, or design an obstacle course instead. The book ends with calming breathing and imagination exercises.

The only minor point I’d make is that the book opens by describing Nathan as a ‘typical boy’. ‘Typical child’ would be my preference. Or just no comment at all on a typical anything, recognising that children are all very different.

Overall though, an enjoyable read, and one we will return to to practice our animal moves.

About The Author

Darryl Edwards is a former investment banking technologist turned movement coach and author. He is the founder of the Primal Play Method and a physical activity, health and play researcher.

The Primal Play Method fuses evolutionary biology with the science of physical activity and play psychology.

Darryl wants to inspire humans regardless of age, or ability to transform their health by making physical activity fun and engaging.

His work has featured on documentaries, TV, radio, podcasts and international press.

Darryl is author of the best-selling book “Animal Moves” and has released a range of fun fitness cards for adults, juniors, infants, office workers and fitness professionals called the Animal Moves Decks.

He regularly presents as a keynote speaker at events worldwide. His April 2019 TED talk “Why working out isn’t working out”—has been viewed over one million times.

Darryl resides in London, England and publishes about playful living at PrimalPlay.com.

Connect with Darryl: Primal Play | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram 

Many thanks to Shannon at R&R Book Tours for offering me the chance to review My First Animal Moves as part of her book tour. Thank you to Darryl for gifting me a copy of the book, in return for an honest review. All views expressed are my own.