Origami Yoda

Normally I like to share the high-faluting grown up books I like to read. This one is decidedly not grown-up, though it is possible to pull some grown-up truths out of it. This is an audio book I have listened to multiple times with my kids. They like it, and Mom gets a kick out of it, too. There are some drawbacks. The main characters in this book are in middle school so there are girl-boy issues. I don't mind this much because my kids are fully aware that OTHER kids have crushes, dates, kiss and do things like that. Language is the other issue. The author, in order to make the book believable, uses bad language like "butt" and "stupid" and various other negative names like "loser" to prove his point and set the tone. (This is bad language at my house, anyway.) If you can get beyond that, or incorporate some talks about appropriate language into your teachable moments, there is some great stuff in this book. The premise is that a rather dysfunctional kid in school has made an origami yoda (thus allowing for some pretty entertaining star wars references) that he puts on his finger as a puppet. The dysfunctional kid goes around the school and his origami yoda gives other kids advice on some of the difficult things these middle schoolers are facing. The narrator is trying to figure out if yoda is "real" or not. Not only does this book give practical wisdom about handling some tough social situations, it has lead to some very exciting conversations about other things that we may or may not believe in. Are there mystical things in the world? Can everything be explained by logic? It even led to some great conversations about religion and god. There are some neat plot twists that I didn't expect. The author just came out with a new book this August called "Darth Paper Strikes Back" How awesome is that? He likes to share the origami pattern wealth on his website and apparently is prepared to visit school groups with masses of green paper squares so everyone can create their own paper yoda guide. I better stop now before I get into the bad star wars puns. So may the force.... oh just....the end.