The Burpee Bears: From bestselling author Joe Wicks, comes this glorious picture book, packed with fitness tips, exercises and healthy recipes for kids 3+

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I used to, but now I think more about the mental health crisis. I used to focus on physical transformation – leanness, body shape. But during the pandemic I realised that it’s with mental health that people need help and motivation. Without a healthy mindset and the energy you get from exercise, life feels a lot harder. If you look at exercise from a mental health perspective, the body will follow.

I became successful because my workouts were 20 minutes long and my recipes 15 minutes. I wanted to show people that they can lead a healthy life with minimal effort. For this bear family, every day is a new day: a day for adventure and discovery. True to Joe’s ethos, each book will feature a fun and positive story. With added exercises –including burpees – and recipes, this book is perfect for families to share and enjoy together! As I was growing up I remember feeling short-changed when I moved onto the more difficult books with no illustrations. His illustrations for Burpee Bears were all done digitally using an iPad, over the space of just six weeks.

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I leave them my drawing and then they have a little display with all their owls. There are little parliaments of owls all around classrooms in Northern Ireland now," he proudly beams.

When I was commissioned to illustrate the book I wanted to make it feel like a baby's comfort blanket and choose to draw it in these pastel pencils to accentuate the softness of it." They are one of the most important parts of literature and perhaps one of the hardest to get right. In these uncertain times that we are living, books have the power to help support and empower children and assist them in building empathy and understanding of this crazy world.During his two-year fellowship, Howard is committed to "promoting visual literacy as an alternative, accessible gateway for students and children of all literacy levels to engage in, building enough confidence in them to read and create their own stories". Teachers say how enthused children are with that approach. Visual literacy is inclusive and embraces people of all abilities. Those with learning difficulties may have trouble with words - but it's not to say they can't tell a narrative. The curriculum doesn't cater for these kids and it's an eye opener for a lot of children and teachers."

I reverse the process, with the illustrations and characters first and then let the children choose if they want to end the story with a written sentence, an illustration or both. I explain to them how to become a detective, looking for clues and descriptive words," says Howard. The Fellowship was created as part of Queen's University and the Arts Council's joint 10-year Seamus Heaney Legacy project supported by Atlantic Philanthropies. He also welcomes the trend of having more illustrations contained within books aimed at the progressing and older reader, including the lavishly illustrated versions of Harry Potter.

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Being an illustrator is a very solitary profession and sometimes you forget the effect of what you are doing has on people. The message with children always has to be: “Do your best. If you can’t do it perfectly, have a try.” Don’t judge yourself. Don’t compare yourself. Nothing brings you more into the moment than freezing water

In the classroom children would normally write the story first and then add the pictures," he says. Howard, who illustrated an abridged edition of Jill Tomlinson's story in 2001, is the current Northern Ireland Children's Writing Fellow and he is "thoroughly enjoying" getting out and about inspiring children with their creative writing and reading. For this bear family, every day is a new day: a day for adventure and discovery. True to Joe’s ethos, each book will feature a fun and positive story. With added exercises -including burpees – and recipes, this book is perfect for families to share and enjoy together! Created by Joe, with the story co-written with acclaimed author Vivian French, and gloriously illustrated by stellar artist Paul Howard. About This Edition ISBN:I used to think if I tried drugs, I’d become an addict. It frightened me. I suppose I am addicted to social media… and to helping people. I’m very purpose-driven and get a buzz out of that. I’m obsessed with doing more content, more videos, going to other countries. Created by Joe, with the story co-written with acclaimed author Vivian French, and gloriously illustrated by stellar artist Paul Howard. I love being playful. Exercise doesn’t have to be serious. But it was very tiring making the series because of Covid. I had to film with each child separately because of social distancing rules. The Workout Badges will be available on The Body Coach TV YouTube channel and on the YouTube Kids app, starting 22 September Earlier this year the Duchess of Cambridge chose to read the book on CBeebies Bedtime Stories to mark Children's Mental Health Week.