March 2, 2011

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda - by Tom Angleberger

With a title like that, this book was bound to be weird, and it was.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, though.  This is the story of a wide assortment of sixth graders, centered around Tommy the narrator and his sometimes-friend Dwight, the class oddball. When Dwight started walking around with a homemade origami Yoda on his finger, it was just one more in a long line of kooky Dwight behaviors.  However, when the little Yoda began giving amazingly smart advice to all of Tommy's friends, everything changed.  This book is kind of like Tommy's diary as he tries to get to the bottom of this Yoda phenomenon and figure out the truth.

It's a funny book, full of typically zany middle school characters and pretty believable sixth-grade language and interactions.  You see the good and the bad, and in this short book, will even see some characters grow and change.  If you want to understand what it might be like to be a sixth grader, living in a constantly-changing hard-to-understand world at a totally awkward point in your life, this weird little book may help.  If not, at least you'll have some good laughs.

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