Product Description

The perfect primer for yoga enthusiasts, Um, Like... OM goes above and beyond teaching the technique of yoga: it reveals how yoga can help teenage girls face any challenge that comes their way, from dealing with difficult parents to break-ups to the pressure to conform. Written in a hip and empathetic voice by a yoga practitioner who knows all about the ups and downs of the teenage years, this book also provides tips and tricks on how girls can tell their inner critic to take a hike and embrace the girl goddess within. Packed with illustrated yoga poses, real-life teen stories, inspiring quotations, sidebars with FYIs (``Fun Yoga Information''), book and music recommendations, and a glossary, Um, Like... OM is the ultimate guide to yoga-and life-for teens.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #209260 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780316980012
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From School Library Journal
Grade 6-10–Cooper explains what yoga is, its benefits, and how to incorporate it into one's life. Her laid-back writing style is appealing; she plays the role of author as confidant and girlfriend successfully, and combines advice with step-by-step instructions. Each pose is described in detail and illustrated with line drawings. The text is divided into sections such as Yoga and Relationships and Gettin' Along with Family and Friends, with poses that correspond to different situations and challenges. The author shares hard-won lessons about navigating through the teen years and coming out on top, and the sections on body image and how yoga can help give one perspective are especially good.–Elaine Baran Black, Gwinnett County Public Library, Lawrenceville, GA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Gr. 8-11. Written by a young Los Angeles yogini who teaches classes to teens, this breezy, enthusiastic introduction aims to empower girls. Introductory chapters about the benefits of yoga are bolstered by Cooper's own stories and testimonials from her students. Later chapters suggest postures to overcome common obstacles, such as poor self-esteem, perfectionism, and tough relationships, followed by Cooper's step-by-step instructions with commentary about what each pose accomplishes. The tone wavers between straightforward and valley-girl-inflected: "Grab your mats, and let's get this party started!" Teens looking for color photos will have to consult other guides, such as Thia Luby's Yoga for Teens , as poses here are illustrated in drawings, and the book's small, square format does little to enhance the content. Even so, the casual, best-friend approach will appeal to many YAs; this is surely the only yoga guide with a list of suggested mantras that includes both Sanksrit phrases and "Time for a new and better boyfriend." An eclectic list of suggested books and music closes. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Evan Cooper started practicing yoga as a teenager ten years ago. A graduate of UCLA, she now teaches yoga to teenage girls throughout Los Angeles.

Customer Reviews

Should be on every girl's bookshelf.
Evan Cooper's "Um, like...OM, A Girl Goddess's Guide to Yoga" is a breezy read which accomplishes what all good teachers do best: Imparting with vivid good humor the wisdoms of processes taken beyond the classroom. The target audience here, primarily middle-school girls, calls for a most delicate balancing act: Being bright, fun, and "cool" while explaining the theory, practice, and results of a disciplined approach to yoga. Ms. Cooper accomplishes this masterfully with anecdotes, explanations, and her "girl friend" persona.

Scan the table of contents alone and, guaranteed: You're hooked: weight, sex, drugs, peers, parents, and so much else. Add Stacy Peterson's fun, carefully-scripted (by position and motion) illustrations of the exercises, and this fun profound little book will delight and please any "tweener-to-teen." And her mom, who might recover her own "pocket devi" in the process!

This book rocks!!!!
This book is amazing. Evan Cooper knows exactly what every girl is worrying and wondering about and has made yoga work for us! I've tried yoga before and it was okay, but this yoga is the best by far. Reading this book can change your life.

--Stephanie, 18

Surprisingly serious and useful
A disclaimer: I am a yoga instructor in my mid-thirties. Clearly, I am not this author's target demographic. I took that into account when I first picked it up. Even with that caveat, I initially found the tone so off the cuff and the postures so disorganized that I put it down and walked away.

A few years later, after I'd incorporated much more Kundalini into my own practice, I found myself drawn to this book again. This time, much more of what she was offering for asanas/kriyas made sense to me, as well as many of the meditations. That she doesn't include a lot of different movements in each section also made more sense- often times with kundalini you may find that you get more bang for your buck from fewer movements.

I liked that she not only tackled serious issues- family pressure, drug use, body image, school stress and romance- but that she also had her own contributions to make about how those issues affected her. Her light, breezy style belied the seriousness of both her own and her students' and how yoga helped address- if not cure- all of them.

Like many authors for the younger set, her aim was off- I felt like she was reaching for the older teen, but instead landed on the twelve to fifteen year olds, if not younger. That's probably just as much her style as it is the increasingly jaded affect of all age groups, but it's something to keep in mind.

I'd love to see more from this author- I think she has a lot to offer not only this age group but adults as well.