IT'S NOT PILATES!

A girl sneakily teaches dubious woodland animals to learn some Pilates moves in Chevallier’s picture book about trying new things.

Peachy-skinned, strawberry-haired Andrea wants to share her love of Pilates, but when she offers a class for the woodland creatures, no one shows up. Soon, Raccoon stops by to see what she’s doing and professes, “Pilates seems silly—I’ll never do it.” Thinking quickly, Andrea suggests playing with a balloon instead and surreptitiously teaches Raccoon a Pilates move. Soon, other animals join, each with different excuses for why they’ll never do Pilates: Squirrel thinks it sounds too hard, Fox thinks Andrea means “pie and lattes,” Rabbit only wants to play if it involves carrots, and Bear feels too old to try a new thing. Andrea accepts each protest but suggests a new movement to each animal—then reveals at the end that those movements were Pilates. Though the story revolves around Andrea telling fibs, her ways of getting around the animals’ objections to introduce them to something fun work well, illustrating how trying a new thing can be very rewarding. Chevallier’s brief text on each page uses accessible vocabulary, making the book well suited to newly independent readers. Argirova’s cartoon illustrations effectively capture both the joyful silliness of animals doing Pilates while ably demonstrating the poses. A description of Pilates moves in the end pages encourages readers to try the exercises at home.

A fun introduction to Pilates motions.