November Meeting Wrap-Up

The Book Buddies Book Club met yesterday afternoon to discuss The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger.

We all really liked the format of the book and liked that it was a casefile, told from different viewpoints. We thought that if Dwight had been the main narrator it would have been a very weird book and if it were Harvey doing the narrating it would have been a much more negative book since he didn't believe in Yoda and was always telling the other kids how dumb it was.

We thought about the three kinds of advice Yoda gave to his classmates: predicting the future advice (ex. the pop quiz in science class), command advice (ex. telling the kids to learn the Twist) and problem-solving advice (ex. how to hide the water spot on Kellen's pants) and decided that his problem-solving advice was the best because it really helped other people.

It was evident that through much of the story Tommy and the other kids weren't really friends with Dwight. They didn't treat him like a friend and seemed to just be using him for his Yoda. But by the end, we all agreed that they came to accept Dwight for who he is and recognized that he might be a lot smarter than they were giving him credit for.

It was a terrific discussion and we all really liked the book and are looking forward to reading Darth Paper Strikes Back.

Following the discussion, we made some origami Yoda's of our own! We used two different sets of instructions, the one provided in the back of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and the simpler, 5-fold version available on the author's website.

Meeting Reminder

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a reminder that the Book Buddies Book Club will meet after the holiday weekend on Monday, November 28th at 3:30pm in the John Clarke Children's Program Room to discuss The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger. We'll be talking about the book, enjoying some after-school snacks and attempting to make our very own origami yodas!

Hope to see you there!

Origami

In The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, Dwight makes a lot of origami including the very cool, future-predicting Origami Yoda. Origami is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding and the goal of origami is to take a flat piece of paper and turn it into a sculpture without making cuts or using glue or tape. It's fascinating and a lot of fun and the projects you choose to make can range from basic to very, very difficult. If you are interested in learning how to make origami here are a few books we have at the library that you might want to check out:


Origami for Children: 35 easy-to-follow step-by-step projects by Mari Ono

Easy Origami Animals by Ruth Ungert

Origami Zoo: 25 Fun Paper Animal Creations by Paul Jackson

There are also great websites to help you get started:

Easy Origami for Kids

Origami Resource Center - Easy Origami

Activity Village - Origami for Kids

Star Wars & Star Trek Origami (from the Origami Resource Center)

Origami Yoda Read Alikes

I hope you've been enjoying The Strange Case of Origami Yoda (our November book). Featuring text and hand drawn cartoon illustrations, it's part of a new trend in books for young readers. Here are a few books created in a similar style that you might also want to read:

Big Nate: In a Class By Himself by Lincoln Peirce (2010)

Supremely confident middle school student Nate Wright manages to make getting detention from every one of his teachers in the same day seem like an achievement.

Spaceheadz by Jon Scieszka (2010)

On his first day at Brooklyn's P.S. 858, fifth-grader Michael K. is teamed with two very strange students, and while he gradually comes to believe they are aliens who need his help, he has trouble convincing anyone else of the truth.


Justin Case: School, Drool, and Other Daily Disasters by Rachel Vail (2010)

It's the start of the school year, and nothing feels right to Justin. He didn't get the teacher he wanted, he's not in the same class as his best friend, and his little sister, Elizabeth, is starting kindergarten at his school. Elizabeth doesn't seem nervous at all. Justin is very nervous about third grade. And to top it off, he's lost his favorite stuffed animal, but he can't tell anyone, because technically he's too old to still have stuffed animals. Right?

The Popularity Papers by Amy Ignatow (2010)

Two best friends embark on a project to study the behavior and taste of the popular girls at their elementary school so that by the time they get to middle school they too will be in the right crowd. Novel appears in the form of a scrapbook.

Author Tom Angleberger

Tom Angleberger is the author of our November book, The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. Visit his website for more information about his books.

He is also the author of Darth Paper Strikes Back: An Origami Yoda Book and Horton Halfpott: Or, the Fiendish Mystery of Smugwick Manor; or, the Loosening of M'Lady Luggertuck's Corset.

Darth Paper Strikes Back:

Harvey, upset when his Darth Paper finger puppet brings humiliation, gets Dwight suspended, but Origami Yoda asks Tommy and Kellan, now in seventh grade, to make a new casefile to persuade the School Board to reinstate Dwight.






Horton Halfpott:

Horton, an upstanding kitchen boy in a castle in nineteenth-century England, becomes embroiled in a mystery surrounding a series of thefts, which is also connected to the pursuit of a very eligible and wealthy young lady's affections.