The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger isn’t exactly what I was expecting. But it was surprising in a good way.
I thought it would be shorter. I also thought it would be paperback. It’s not overly long, but it wasn’t something I could read on one bus trip or lunch break. And it’s a very nice hardcover. Reminds me of the Doctor Who tie-in novels and The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities which you should totally buy, yo. A very nice look and feel to it.
Also, how can you resist that origami Yoda on the cover?!
For bonus points, I read this while listening to Weird Al’s “Yoda”. Yo-yo-yo-yo Yoda.
This book is laid out as case files, as the main character, Tommy, tries to work out if Origami Yoda is magic, or what. Origami Yoda is a Yoda origami puppet that a strange classmate of his, Dwight, made and designed himself. He wears it around on his finger and it gives sage advice to those who ask. In a bad Yoda voice with questionable Yoda syntax. (But the book makes a point of pointing that out!)
Other classmates have contributed to the case files, and added their thoughts and comments. And doodles.
I really have very little negative to say about this book. I liked that the pages were all crinkly (well, the design on them was of crinkly paper, the paper wasn’t actually crinkly). There are little tie fighters and X-wing fighters in the corners of the pages. The doodles are believably drawn by a kid, and funny! The one of the squirrels struck me particularly.
The book was just geeky enough for me, with Star Wars references, Shakespeare quotes, mention of Tycho Brahe. There are girls in here who don’t come off as idiots. (Although they do seem the goal of most of the male characters.) There’s even a hard-of-hearing girl, though she doesn’t get to write a case file herself.
So to my two problems with the book. First, the kids are in sixth grade, and they seem rather obsessed with girls and a PTA Fun Night dance that happens every month. That’s not the sixth grade I remember. (Though admittedly I am far from typical.) I wonder if it’s because it’s part of a middle school, whereas my sixth grade was still elementary school.
The other is the origami Yoda instructions at the back. I was worried I couldn’t follow them well, but in the end, I think I came out with a decent origami Yoda. I didn’t cut the paper in half and in half like it said, so he’s a large origami Yoda. He’s also not green.
Buuuut… it’s also not the Yoda(s) in the book. If you expect to make one like the Yoda on the cover, you’ll be disappointed. I wish the author had included two different versions of Yoda instructions. One easy one and one more complex one that looks nicer. I probably would’ve failed to make the good one properly, but hey.. I could try!
There’s a sequel out soon (already?) and I’m rather interested in seeing the return of the origami Jedi.
I thought the same about the sixth grade boys being so into girls, but I thought, “Well, maybe it’s just these boys.” I mean, certainly some people were going out back then, at least.
Also, your Yoda is totally cute and I love the caption, even if he doesn’t look like the one in the book. :)
If I wasn’t copying a face from the book, I totally don’t know what face I would’ve drawn on it. Fortunately that was a really easy face to draw!
I actually went to the author’s website to see if there were more Yoda instructions and it appears that he made the cover Yoda but didn’t write down how he did it and then forgot. But there is a video of him making one so many fans have been able to figure it out from that.
Re: the dance and sixth grade obsession with girls. I have to mostly agree here. Seventh grade seemed to me around the time when people started obsessing about stuff like that, though there were certainly people who were into it earlier. (Though what I remember as a girl is mostly my friends obsessing about various singers/band members and me kind of nodding as if I cared too. Entire lunch periods were spent looking at pictures of Bon Jovi or talking about some dream girl Y had about New Kids on the Block.)
Our school was 5-8th grade, and there were about 4-6 dances every year. 5-6th had their own dance and then 7-8th had their own dance. I went to one and it was as lame as you’d expect. I don’t recall going to another until 8th grade graduation.
I remember my friend was into INXS. But yea, it was around 7th grade that the girls started to get weird and boring.
I don’t remember what dances there were or how often, since I never went. Did not sound at all fun or interesting.