For all the Star Wars action that may be implied by the title, Tom Angleberger's YA novel really doesn't have that much to do with the classic franchise. Instead, the book is about a small origami finger puppet created by the strangest kid in the class, Dwight. Only this puppet keeps giving outstanding advice to students about everything from sports to love, and the advice is really, really good - far better than you might expect from someone as odd and socially awkward as Dwight. What results is a fun story about social awkwardness, dating, and what it means to fit in, all told with a solid sense of humor and silliness that keeps everything working well. The story's framework - which finds one of the characters weighing all of the evidence that could either prove or disprove Origami Yoda's wisdom - is a clever way of streamlining the story, and by putting the whole story in a notebook complete with multiple characters' annotations and drawings, you end up with a fun little story that packs every page with fun little gems. Origami Yoda isn't one of those YA books that's going to be incredibly appealing to adults; it's definitely aimed at a pre-teen audience through and through, and doesn't have much interest in complex plotting or sophisticated jokes. But that doesn't make it a bad book; in fact, there's something refreshing about a book that's only interested in its own audience and isn't obsessed with crossover appeal. And by focusing on that audience, Origami Yoda ends up being more satisfying for kids than it would be otherwise. So, if you're looking for a new Star Wars fix or aren't that interested in the world through a pre-teen's eyes, you probably won't like Origami Yoda that much. But it's a fun story, told with a nice sense of humor and an approachability that makes it a winning, engaging read for kids.
- Josh Mauthe
- Josh Mauthe