Boyogi: How a Wounded Family Learned to Heal
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
When his daddy comes home from the service struggling with PTSD, a young boy discovers that learning yoga together can be a source of healing. Ever since Daddy returned from the war, he’s been different. At first, Butta Bean thinks it’s his fault—that maybe his daddy doesn’t love him anymore. But Mama explains that Daddy's mind is hurt from things that happened while he was away. When Mama takes them all to yoga class at their local YMCA, Daddy doesn’t want to go at first, and Butta Bean thinks it looks weird. But as Daddy and Butta Bean get better at the yoga poses (Daddy says he’s a real boyogi), Butta Bean starts to see a change in Daddy. He seems more and more like his old self. In a picture book gently tuned to a child’s understanding, award-winning author David Barclay Moore and Caldecott Honor recipient Noa Denmon celebrate the transformative power of yoga, therapy, and abiding love for your family.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Young protagonist Butta Bean knows his father has been behaving differently since returning from deployment, but the child doesn't have context for what reads as PTSD: "I thought he acted sad because of something I did. I thought my daddy didn't love me anymore." Explaining that "Daddy got sick overseas," Butta Bean's mother notes that "When Daddy was away, some bad things happened there.... We are lucky nothing happened to Daddy's body. But those bad things harmed his mind." After Mama takes Daddy and Butta Bean along to a yoga class at the local Y, the father-son duo doesn't miss a day. Not only do their bodies and minds adjust, so too does the bond between father and son. Denmon's digital illustrations juxtapose somber blues for difficult moments and golden tones for both the Black family's warm memories and Daddy's arc toward feeling "way better." In conversational text that spotlights one family's experience, Moore addresses an important but conceptual topic in a developmentally appropriate way. Ages 6–9.
