The Strange Case of Origami Yoda discussion

Origami Yoda
The Strange case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger is about a sixth grader boy named Tommy, who tried to figure out if Origami Yoda is real or not. Dwight, who does a lot of weird things, made Origami Yoda the finger puppet out of paper. When the students have a question or a problem they will go to Origami Yoda for advice because he gives such good advice. This is why Tommy wants to know if he is real or not because Dwight is so weird and could not give such good advice like Yoda does. So to figure out if Yoda is real, Tommy asks his classmates to tell their story about their experience with Yoda.
Tom does a good job at making the characters seem realistic. The book is written by the students telling their story about Origami Yoda. Because they are telling their story, it seems like the students are presenting the case to the reader. Some of the characters are one-dimensional and some are multidimensional. Tommy and Dwight are examples of characters that are multidimensional because the reader knows more than one trait about them. A lot of the other characters are one-dimensional because the reader does not know very much about them, even though they write their story about Origami Yoda.

Igraine the Brave
Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke is a fantasy book. It is about a family of magician trying to save their castle. Igraine is the youngest daughter and does not know as many magic spells as her brother. Igraine’s parents are turned to pigs from a spell going wrong. Igraine is set out to the hills to get some giant’s hair to turn her parents back to human form. She is sent because her brother has to stay back and help protect the castle from Osmund, who is trying to take over their castle. In the end her parents are changed back into humans and Osmund flies away because he was in a trap that Igraine’s brother put them in.
The characters in the book are all fantasy characters. There are knights, good and bad, giants, servants, dragons, magic books, and stone lions and gargoyles coming alive to scare of predators. Igraine’s mother and father are called Sir Lamorak and Fair Melisande. Igraine’s family is the good knights. They do not fight unless they are being attacked on and they help others out when they can. Osmund and his servants are the bad knights trying take over Igraines family’s castle and steal the magic spell books. The Sorrowful Knight is a good knight because he goes with Igraine back to her castle after meeting with the giant. He helps Igraine’s family save their castle by requesting Osmund a fight in order to give Sir Lamorak and Fair Melisande time to change back into human.

Dead Guys Talk
Dead Guys Talk by Barbara Joosse and illustrated by Abby Carter is about a group of kids solve a mysterious mystery case. Willie, Lucy, and Kyle call themselves the Scarface detectives. The group gets a letter in the mail saying “Help.” There is a map with the letter leading them to the place where they are to solve the mystery. They are sent to the neighborhood cemetery to solve the mystery. They are sent to the cemetery because there is going to be a mall built on the cemetery. They think their client is the ghost of Loraine because there is a note saying “we don’t want to move, we like it here”. In the end they stop the mall from being built and find out their client was the groundskeeper of the cemetery.
Barbara does a really good job at making the characters seem realistic like they come to life in the story. The reader knows what each character is thinking. Willie, the leader of the group, is called “Wide Willie” because he has all the good ideas when it comes to making a plan for solving the mysteries. Lucy is the only girl of the group. She is Willie’s best friend. Then there is Kyle. His house is where the headquarters is at for the Scarface detectives. Chuckie is the body guide for the detectives. All of these friends live in the same neighborhood. While solving the mystery the detectives learn more about the other characters. Loraine is dead and at her grave is where the mystery takes place. Her house was sold to Kyle’s family when she died. He nephew Neil owns the cemetery. All of these characters are multidimensional characters because as the story goes on the reader learns more about their feelings and who they are. The mothers of the children and the grounds keeper are one dimensional character because the reader does not learn much about them.
Mockingbird
Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine is about a fifth grader named Caitlin who has Asperger’s syndrome. Everything is black and white to Caitlin and she “just doesn’t Get It.” Her brother, Devon, had to explain and help her with everything. When Devon is shot in a school shooting, Caitlin is left to find closure to help her father and herself. Because things are only black and white to Caitlin, she thinks she can just go out and find it, she thinks it is an actual thing. After she reads the definition of closure in the dictionary, she then realizes she had to “Work At It.”
I really like the point of view in this book. It is through the eyes of a child with Autism, Caitlin, when most of the time it is through the eyes of a character without a disability such as a family member. I think it is very interesting to see how Caitlin thinks and how things look through her eyes. The world is a whole new word for Caitlin and she sees it differently than other people do. She does not understand things the same way. She has to keep reminding herself to look at the person when talking to them and to use your manners, unlike other people. For example, she did not understand people can be friends with more than one person. Caitlin is friends with Michael first, but gets mad when the teacher puts Josh with Michael for reading buddies instead of her. She says Josh can’t be Michael’s friend because she was first. Mrs. Brooks tries to explain to her that more than one person can have the same friend.
Our Colonial Year
Our Colonial Year written and illustrated by Cheryl Harness is about the thirteen colonies. This book shows what the different colonies did in the different months of the year. In the corner of the picture the name of the colony is shown. The last two pages of the book show a map of the thirteen colonies. This would be a good book to have in the classroom for younger students beginning to learn about the thirteen colonies.
I really like the pictures in this book. The illustrations are rendered in pen and ink and watercolors. They look like they are on a quilt or fabric. This adds texture to the pictures. I think that putting the illustrations on a quilt like fabric makes the illustrations look more like the past. The people’s clothes in the pictures are what they wore in the past. The picture’s colors go along with the month. For example, in January and in February it usually snows, so the pictures are a blue color to represent the snow. The pictures and the words go along well together. The back matter states that the words are set in a historical fell type. For example, October is the harvest time of the year and the picture shows the colony shows Virginia harvesting the wheat. This is an easy read book and the students can learn a lot just by looking at the pictures.
Babymouse
Babymouse Skater Girl by Jennifer Holm and Mathew Holm is about a mouse name Babymouse. She is always getting honorable mention and she is tired of it and wants to win a trophy. She likes staking and a skating coach sees her skating and asks her if she wants a coach. She goes to skating practice and everyone there says she’s good. The coach tells her the rules: no more cupcakes, and practice at five in the morning and after school and to give one hundred and ten percent. After a while she gets so tired of getting up at four thirty in the morning and having no time for friends, cupcakes and reading. So she quits skating and her friends give her a trophy for being the Best Babymouse.
I do not like graphic novels very much. It was hard to follow along with. The pictures did not follow very well. There were times when there were a few pictures about a snow mouse and a mouse train. I had no idea how they went with the story. There were no words that explain those pictures. I had to go look deeper at the pictures. The pictures are done well in this book. They are very detailed, which they have to be because it is a graphic novel. Meaning the story is told mainly through the pictures. There is not much color to the illustrations. They are black and white with a little pink. I am not a big fan of graphic novels, but for someone who likes to read books through the pictures, this would be a good fun book.