The Strange Case of Origami Yoda
By Tom Angleberger
This book is drop down, fall out of your chair, roll around on the floor hi-lar-i-ous. And I’m not the only one that thinks so. Meghan loves it. Merrilee loves it. Mandy loves it. Topher loves it. In fact, Topher loves it so much that he made it one of his book talk books for this spring. When he goes to schools, he reads the classes the first “Kellen” chapter. He has the kids laughing so hard, they can’t wait to get to the store to buy the book — and buy it they do. This weekend we sold 4 copies of the book (all the ones we had in the store). You don’t get a better endorsement then that.
The book follows Tommy as he tries to decide whether or not the great advice Origami Yoda gives is because the Yoda is really wise or if it’s just coincidence. Origami Yoda is a folded paper finger puppet shaped like Yoda worn by Dwight, the loser of their grade. Dwight is considered a total dweeb, but the advice he gives supposedly coming from Yoda is good. Tommy has to decide if he wants to take that advice and risk exposing himself to the girl he has a crush on.
This book is written in multiple first persons by the people Tommy has asked to document their experiences. At the end of each section are comments by Tommy and his friend about what has happened to the people. There are also many little drawings (a la Diary of a Wimpy Kid) to illustrate the text.
Now, I must confess that like I’ve said before I’m not a big fan of the multi-first person point of view book. However, it works in this book. There’s so much more depth to each antecdote having them come from different people. In fact, I’m not sure this story could be written any other way.
This super funny, super great story is good for kids 9 & up although younger ones should be able to read it comprehension-wise. However, the somewhat romantic subplot may turn younger readers off. Great for boys and girls, I would also recommend this as a great book club book.
[...] The BookKids Blog [...]