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Expand Kids’ Yoga Learning with Life-Improving Fables--"Llamas and Niyamas"--A read aloud children's book

Created by Michael Levine

Our Book, "Llamas and Niyamas," is Celebrated by Experts in the Yoga Community! “A beautifully thoughtful and accessible way to introduce children to the niyamas. These gentle, engaging stories bring big, ancient ideas into everyday moments kids truly recognise, helping them discover how things like tidying up, handling big feelings, and taking quiet time can help them feel happier, calmer and more confident in themselves.” Jaime Amor, Creator of Cosmic Kids Yoga "With humor, heart, and a delightful cast of animal characters, this book introduces children to the timeless wisdom of the Niyamas in a way that is joyful, accessible, and deeply meaningful.” Julie Lawrence, Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher "Llamas and Niyamas beautifully translates the niyamas into stories that are warm, joyful, and gently offered. The young llama is spirited, relatable, and just feisty enough to feel wonderfully real, while her kind and supportive animal guides embody these observances with charm rather than preachiness. Introducing such timeless yogic wisdom in childhood plants powerful seeds of self-awareness, steadiness, and compassion that can stay with a child for a lifetime. This is a delightful and meaningful contribution to children's literature." Leslie Ellis, C-IAYT, ERYT-500, Certified Yoga Therapist, Certified Soul-based Coach “With lush illustrations and gentle lessons tucked into every page, Llamas and Niyamas invites children to explore the five niyamas through the eyes of their new favorite woolly friend. Amal the llama shows young readers that the ancient wisdom of yoga isn't just for the mat -- it's for every single day. Whether your little one is a seasoned yogi or simply llama-obsessed, this book will spark curiosity, encourage self-care, and leave everyone — kids and grown-ups alike -- feeling just a little more centered.” Kary Pratt, RYT Find our book, coloring book, niyama/well-being weekly practice tracker, and stickers, and create your own Niyama Acitivty Bundle!

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Exciting news! The offset-printed hard covers have shipped. Please fill out your Backerkit surveys.
21 days ago – Tue, Aug 11, 2026 at 12:21:17 PM

Dear supporters,

The offset-printed hard covers have shipped. This means that we might be able to mail them to you as soon as early October. However, realistically, a mid November delivery is more likely. 

Thank you to the 43 of you who quickly completed the Backerkit surveys. I won't lock your surveys yet until I have a firm delivery schedule for the books. If you change your address or credit card, please return to BackerKit to update your information.

For the 53 of you who haven't completed the "surveys," please do so. Books cannot be delivered to addresses that we don't have, and digital products cannot be sent to apple relay email addresses. 

The survey process is very simple. Basically, you 1) confirm your order, 2) add additional products if you want any, 3) add your address or make certain it is correct, 4) choose the autograph phrase and to whom it is addressed (if you requested a signature), 5) acknowledge copyright rules and sticker warnings if they apply to your orders, and 6) update your credit card info for any unpaid shipping or additional purchases. The entire process will likely take less than five minutes (and probably less than 3 minutes).

Also, for those of you who ordered extra copies of my book (thank you), if you would like for me to covert them to hard covers at no extra charge, please let me know at [email protected]. I can manually change the orders and make certain that no additional cost will be applied.

With gratitude,

Michael

Quick Action Needed: Accessing your survey (Apple ID / Private Relay Backers—Alivia, Amelia, Jirasak, Kathryn, Linda, Rebeka, and Paige)
about 1 month ago – Sun, Aug 02, 2026 at 03:34:20 PM

Hi everyone!

If you backed this project using Apple’s "Hide My Email" / Private Relay feature (an address ending in @privaterelay.appleid.com), Apple’s privacy settings automatically block survey emails sent from external platforms like BackerKit.

Because of this, your survey email couldn't reach your inbox. Don't worry—your pledge is completely safe, and you can access your survey right now using either of the options below:

Option 1: Access Your Survey Directly (Fastest)

1.     Go to our BackerKit recovery page: https://llamas-niyamas.backerkit.com

2.     Enter your @privaterelay.appleid.com email address.

3.     Click Submit—this will open your survey directly in your browser so you can fill out your shipping info and selections. 

However, if you have asked for digital rewards, we will eventually need an unblocked email address in order to deliver them.

Option 2: Update Your Email Address If you want your survey and future shipping tracking numbers sent to a standard email address:

·       Send me a direct message here on Kickstarter (or to [email protected]) with your preferred email address.

·       I will update your profile in BackerKit and resend your survey link right away.

Thank you for your patience and support! Feel free to message me directly if you hit any snags.

With gratitude,

Michael

"Skip to the next step" button is not working for everyone
about 1 month ago – Sun, Aug 02, 2026 at 10:01:21 AM

My apologies for yet another update.

There appears to be a problem with the "Skip to the next step" button in the add-on section of the BackerKit survey.

I have notified the BackerKit team, and hopefully they will resolve the issue when they are back in the office on Monday.

In the interim, one work around might be to select the free downloadable well-being practice tracker in the hope that a selection will allow you to advance to the next screen.  If have no interest in the practice tracker, you can ignore the download opportunity when we send it out.

I'm sorry about any inconvenience the survey is causing.

Please let me know whether you experience any other issues with the survey.

Sincerely,

Michael

[email protected]

The BackerKit Surveys have been sent. Please read these survey explanations!
about 1 month ago – Sat, Aug 01, 2026 at 11:40:04 AM

Dear Supporters,

The BackerKit “surveys” have been sent, so please check your inboxes and junk mailboxes.

I’ve been so focused on the backend that I now realize a little more explanation about the surveys beforehand would have been better.

The purpose of the surveys is to confirm your mailing address (if you’ve chosen a physical reward), collect any shipping fees that weren’t paid up front, obtain your decision about the free upgrade to the hard cover book, let me know who the autographs are for (if applicable), and provide many of you a chance to convert some of your extra “no reward” pledges into products.

As you may recall, the original pledges were for a print-on-demand paperback book, printed with standard color ink on 70-lb paper. During the campaign, we concluded that these should be changed to premium color ink because you deserve the extra quality. I pre-ordered one just to see, and it’s a great book. 

However, because the campaign reached 100 book orders, we decided to offer to you (our patrons), an offset-printed hardcover printed on 105-lb paper with soy-based ink. It is a truly deluxe version of the book. I’ve ordered a limited number to be printed that will bear the Patron’s badge on the cover. So, unless you would much rather have a paperback, I strongly recommend opting for the hard cover book. (I note that this is a little self-serving because I ordered enough volume so that the cost of the hard cover is actually a little less expensive than the cost of the individual print-on-demand books.)

Unfortunately, providing the choice has led to some confusion in the survey, which we should have foreseen. The easiest way to offer you the choice was to remove your originally selected book from the shipping cart and provide you with the choice of books in the survey. Your survey choice then gets added to the shipping cart. If the surveys are working correctly, you should see no increase in book cost or shipping cost (unless your pledge didn’t cover shipping originally).  If there are any issues in this regard, please contact me. [email protected]

With respect to purchasing add-ons, please don’t feel obligated. You have already done me great service helping to cover some of the costs of illustration, editing, and book design, as well as the printing costs.

However, if you have little ones in your life, I suggest adding on the free print-at-home well-being and niyama practice trackers. You can print them as many times as you need to put on your fridge or hand them out to the kids you teach.

For those of you who pledged funds beyond the rewards you ordered, I enthusiastically recommend converting some of those pledged funds to our coloring (activity) book. You can print those coloring pages or word finds over and over again to hand out to the kids in your life. Similarly, you might consider adding on the print-at-home reward stickers. These are designed to print on Avery sticker paper and fit nicely into the boxes of the well-being and niyama practice trackers.

If you have any questions about the survey, please contact me.

With gratitude,

Michael

[email protected]