The Strange Case of Origami Yoda

Angleberger, T., & Books, L. (2010). The strange case of Origami Yoda (Unabridged. ed.). Prince Frederick, MD: Recorded Books.

Tommy wants to know if Origami Yoda is real.  He is a finger puppet that Dwight has made and speaks for.   Dwight is does a lot of weird things and Tommy tries to figure out how his Origami Yoda can give good advice.   Tommy gathers a case study with entries of stories that his friends and himself  have about how Origami Yoda has given them advice.  Harvey is Tommy’s friend who thinks Origami Yoda is just a piece of paper.  In each entry made, Tommy and Harvey add comments at the end and their friend, Kellen, makes illustrations for the entries.  Tommy has a crush on a girl named Sara.  He has to decide if Origami Yoda’s advice is real in order to ask Sara to dance at Fun Night.  I think this book is for young readers from 4^th-8^th grade.  I like the way it talks about issues that middle school students go through, such as friendship drama, crushes, and sports.  This is a good book for reluctant readers.  The humor in the book can catch their attention.  This is the first book in the series so young readers can continue reading the rest of the series.  Once they finish this series, they may follow-up with The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. As a teacher, I can have students analyze the characters and their traits. Students can use clues from the story to show how the character exhibited that trait.   This story has various themes like friendship, middle school, good vs. evil, growing up, and feelings.  The style used in this book was that it looks as it was handwritten with kid drawn illustrations and has funny blurbs like “The Force-always may it be with you."  The author used vocabulary that young boy readers can relate to like name-calling like dipwad, loser, butt, fart face, and jerk.  The author uses figurative language like “When he’s not actively annoying us, he’s usually sitting there like a hypnotized chicken, staring into space and completely ignoring everybody.” (p. 45),  “Hmmm, I almost don’t want to tell this story because I’m still a little bit mixed-up about. (p. 97), or “ As far as I can see, all this story proves is that Dwight is crazy as a bald gorilla.” (p. 73) The  books ends with instructions on how to make your own Origami Yoda.