by Tom Angleberger. 141 pages.Tommy and his friends face the usual dilemmas facing many sixth graders: the opposite sex, parents, school, the opposite sex, friends, sports and the opposite sex.
Enter Dwight, who rarely does anything right, is always in trouble, gets harassed by other kids and picks his nose. And who is also an origami master. Dwight is the creator and voice of Origami Yoda, a paper puppet. Yoda gives cryptic, very Jedi-like advice to Tommy and all his friends, including Mike, who is driven so insane when playing softball in PE it makes him cry, and Quavondo, who wants to lose his nickname of 'Cheeto Hog.' But Tommy needs to know -- is Origami Yoda real? Can a loser like Dwight, who isn't even smart enough to take Yoda's advice, be the voice of Yoda? To learn if Yoda is real, Tommy's solution is to take a scientific approach -- collect stories from all of his friends and acquaintances into a case file, acquire comments from a confirmed Origami Yoda non-believer, and study the evidence. Because Tommy needs to know the answer -- if he takes Yoda's advice and it's wrong, Tommy is DOOMED.
This is such a fun book to read. Tommy, Sara, Kellen, Lance, even Dwight and Harvey are such believable and relatable characters. All of them remind me of kids I knew in middle school -- Dwight is Jeff Jacoby reincarnated! Middle-schoolers will relate to these very real, very likable characters and be fighting to follow Angleberger's Yoda-folding directions and struggling to provide Jedi-warrior advice.
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