We seek to publish a series of illustrated, lively read-aloud children’s chapter books that introduce young yogis to the yogic principles (beyond the yoga postures) through a curious little llama’s quests to test the boundaries of her world. In each book, she inadvertently gains wisdom from friendly animal guides she finds along the way. We are delighted to soon offer our first to be published book, Llamas and Niyamas: Yoga Fables for Young and Old, which introduces young yogis to the niyamas—healthy practices for life. In each story she meets an animal guide who embodies one of the niyamas.
Luradel Press
TM
Support our Kickstarter campaign [link to be provided when Kickstarter goes live]
We seek to publish a series of illustrated, lively read-aloud children’s chapter books that introduce young yogis to the yogic principles (beyond the yoga postures) through a curious little llama’s quests to test the boundaries of her world. In each book, she inadvertently gains wisdom from friendly animal guides she finds along the way. We are delighted to soon offer our first to be published book, Llamas and Niyamas: Yoga Fables for Young and Old, which introduces young yogis to the niyamas—healthy practices for life. In each story she meets an animal guide who embodies one of the niyamas.
Luradel Press
TM
Support our Kickstarter campaign [link to be provider when Kickstarter goes live]
Our Collaborators at Luradel Press
Jenefer Angell
Editor
Book designer
Kira Rafuse
Sanscrit and yoga content adviser
Amelia Levine
CHILD BEHAVIOR CONSULTANT AND LOGO DESIGNER
EBOOK CONVERTER
Support our Kickstarter campaign [link to be provider when Kickstarter goes live]
Our Collaborators at Luradel Press
Jenefer Angell
Editor
Book designer
Kira Rafuse
Sanscrit and yoga content adviser
Amelia Levine
CHILD BEHAVIOR CONSULTANT AND LOGO DESIGNER
Support our Kickstarter campaign [link to be provided when Kickstarter goes live]
Michael Levine
Michael Levine is a RYT 500 registered yoga teacher with the Yoga Alliance and certified Cosmic Kids yoga teacher.
You might call Michael Levine a yoga dad.
In the nineties, recovering from multiple knee and back surgeries to address several years of debilitating injuries, his friend Jenefer convinced him to try yoga. What started for health reasons ultimately changed the trajectory of his whole life. He met his wife, Kathryn, in yoga class, their first date was a yoga date, and he started writing Amal’s adventures after searching unsuccessfully for a fun way to introduce to the yamas and niyamas to their daughter Amelia.
Like for many yoga practitioners, he took years to explore yoga beyond the postures and breathing exercises. Through over three decades of study, with a variety of excellent teachers coming from different yoga traditions, he appreciates all eight limbs of yoga. Discovering that children’s yoga books still focus mostly on asana, Michael realized the lessons of Amal’s universal and timeless foibles were more relevant and needed than ever.
Now retired from patent work, Michael can dedicate his time to writing more yoga tales, teaching yoga, and improving his personal yoga practices. His other hobbies include gardening, making modifications to his catio to appeal to his inspirational feline, spending time in nature, and visiting yoga studios wherever he travels.
As part of a yoga tradition spanning over 3,000 years in which yoga guidance has been passed from teacher to student, Michael wants to acknowledge some of his most influential yoga teachers: Holiday Johnson, Diana Lang, Jenefer Angell, Julie Gudmestad, Julie Lawrence, Sarahjoy Marsh, Lynn Morrison, Nina Pigleggi, Tara Atkinson, Leslie Ellis, Kira Rafuse and Jaime Amor and their teachers. He also wishes to thank his readers and editors for their suggestions, his academic teachers, particularly his writing teachers, and his family. He is grateful for all the knowledge and kindness bestowed on him from all of the teachers in his life and the wisdom he learns from his students.
Michael Levine
Michael Levine is a RYT 500 registered yoga teacher with the Yoga Alliance and certified Cosmic Kids yoga teacher.
You might call Michael Levine a yoga dad.
In the nineties, recovering from multiple knee and back surgeries to address several years of debilitating injuries, his friend Jenefer convinced him to try yoga. What started for health reasons ultimately changed the trajectory of his whole life. He met his wife, Kathryn, in yoga class, their first date was a yoga date, and he started writing Amal’s adventures after searching unsuccessfully for a fun way to introduce to the yamas and niyamas to their daughter Amelia.
Like for many yoga practitioners, he took years to explore yoga beyond the postures and breathing exercises. Through over three decades of study, with a variety of excellent teachers coming from different yoga traditions, he appreciates all eight limbs of yoga. Discovering that children’s yoga books still focus mostly on asana, Michael realized the lessons of Amal’s universal and timeless foibles were more relevant and needed than ever.
Now retired from patent work, Michael can dedicate his time to writing more yoga tales, teaching yoga, and improving his personal yoga practices. His other hobbies include gardening, making modifications to his catio to appeal to his inspirational feline, spending time in nature, and visiting yoga studios wherever he travels.
As part of a yoga tradition spanning over 3,000 years in which yoga guidance has been passed from teacher to student, Michael wants to acknowledge some of his most influential yoga teachers: Holiday Johnson, Diana Lang, Jenefer Angell, Julie Gudmestad, Julie Lawrence, Sarahjoy Marsh, Lynn Morrison, Nina Pigleggi, Tara Atkinson, Leslie Ellis, Kira Rafuse and Jaime Amor and their teachers. He also wishes to thank his readers and editors for their suggestions, his academic teachers, particularly his writing teachers, and his family. He is grateful for all the knowledge and kindness bestowed on him from all of the teachers in his life and the wisdom he learns from his students.
Dejeshwini N.
From the joyful city Chennai, Dejeshwini started to explore the wonderful world of art and drawing when she found a pencil as a toddler crawling on the floor. Drawing every single day since and learning art from everything around her, she plunged into professional illustration as a self-taught artist despite being a commerce graduate. Dejeshwini loves creating illustrations that make people to relive their sweet past and tickle their ribs. She loves to draw everything cute and funny, when feeling bored she watches videos of baby chimps smiling and elephant calves bathing in tubs.
Dejeshwini N.
From the joyful city Chennai, Dejeshwini started to explore the wonderful world of art and drawing when she found a pencil as a toddler crawling on the floor. Drawing every single day since and learning art from everything around her, she plunged into professional illustration as a self-taught artist despite being a commerce graduate. Dejeshwini loves creating illustrations that make people to relive their sweet past and tickle their ribs. She loves to draw everything cute and funny, when feeling bored she watches videos of baby chimps smiling and elephant calves bathing in tubs.
Jenefer Angell
Book Designer
Kira Rafuse
Kira Rafuse is a Yoga Therapist, a Registered Prenatal Yoga Teacher (RPYT), a 500-hour Registered Yoga Teacher (500 E-RYT), a Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider (YACEP), and a Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner (CAP). She has been practicing and teaching Yoga for 17 years. Kira’s yoga classes incorporate Prāṇāyāma, Meditation, Chanting, and an Āsana flow that embraces the breath as a guide. She teaches Yoga as a way of life that can be practiced moment to moment, giving students the tools for day-to-day living to bring peace and embodied self-love.
The principals of Āyurveda are woven into her Yoga classes. Understanding the basics of Āyurveda helps students learn how to bring balance to their daily routine and move through the seasons.
Kira’s classes embrace Yoga’s roots in India and blends in Yogic philosophy. She also incorporates Nāda Yoga, the study of sound, into her Yoga classes and teaches courses on Sanskrit as a way for students to deepen their connection to the roots of Yoga.
Kira completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training Course at the Sivananda Kutir Ashram in the Himalayas of northern India in 2004. While in India, she spent six months volunteering at an Ashram in Southern India, where she developed a love for Sanskrit and Āyurveda, a sister science of Yoga.
Kira attended the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque NM (‘06-07), where she studied under Dr. Vasant Lad. During her studies with Dr. Lad, Kira was also immersed in the ancient language of Sanskrit and began her journey as a serious student of Sanskrit.
Kira continued her studies with an Āyurvedic internship under Dr. Sarita Shrestha at the Devi Ma rural hospital in Nepal where she focused on pregnancy and postpartum and later completed an 85-hour Prenatal Yoga Training. Kira has a passion for pregnancy and postpartum guidance.
She completed her 300-hour Yoga Teacher Training (‘21) and her Yoga Therapist certification (’ ) with Sarahjoy Marsh.
Nursing credentials
Current role
Kira is originally from New Mexico, lived in Anchorage Alaska for 10 years, and is now living in Corvallis, Oregon. She loves to be in nature, knit, play music, chant Sanskrit, meditate, and work on a mindfulness practice daily alongside her Yoga practice. Her family includes her husband and two daughters, who she greatly enjoys spending time with.
Amelia Levine
Nico
Adopted from the Humane Society in 2015, Nico has been training in the art of ninja yoga his entire life, becoming a master of stealth and tranquility as well as advanced capture techniques.
Although subject to the confines of an indoor life, Nico likes to spend time in his catio, especially at night, to practice his outdoor survival skills. He enjoys refining his surprise and capture practice with mice, moles, moths and the occasional bird.
As a seasoned northwest yoga master, these activities are strictly catch-and-release, in which he collects his catio visitors and releases them into the rest of the house where they can find warmth and areas where they cannot be disturbed. Floor to ceiling netting has been added to dissuade all but the most persistent and creative visitors from entering this sacred space and disturbing the serenity of the entire household.
Nico’s asana practice includes downward and upward dog, spins, twists and supine poses. On sunny days, one can often find him meditating on a sofa by a window. On winter days, he prefers savasana under a blanket.
Nico
Adopted from the Humane Society in 2015, Nico has been training in the art of ninja yoga his entire life, becoming a master of stealth and tranquility as well as advanced capture techniques.
Although subject to the confines of an indoor life, Nico likes to spend time in his catio, especially at night, to practice his outdoor survival skills. He enjoys refining his surprise and capture practice with mice, moles, moths and the occasional bird.
As a seasoned northwest yoga master, these activities are strictly catch-and-release, in which he collects his catio visitors and releases them into the rest of the house where they can find warmth and areas where they cannot be disturbed. Floor to ceiling netting has been added to dissuade all but the most persistent and creative visitors from entering this sacred space and disturbing the serenity of the entire household.
Nico’s asana practice includes downward and upward dog, spins, twists and supine poses. On sunny days, one can often find him meditating on a sofa by a window. On winter days, he prefers savasana under a blanket.
