Will the Origami Yoda Series Continue

'Origami Yoda' book series ends with a trip to the D.C. museums

Tom Angleberger talks about 'Emperor Pickletine Rides the Bus'

Tom Angleberger turned his Origami Yoda creation into a series of books. The latest — "Emperor Pickletine Rides the Bus" — takes place in the museums of Washington.

May the folds be with you.

The intricate folds of Origami Yoda, that is.

Origami Yoda is the wise finger puppet in seven funny books about middle-school kids and the "Star Wars" characters they make from school supplies and food.

Where did author and illustrator Tom Angleberger get the idea for the popular series?

"Many of these things actually happened to me," said Angleberger with a laugh. "I'm basically remolding my experiences," including the big ouch-worthy moment in his new novel, "Emperor Pickletine Rides the Bus."

On Friday, Angleberger will be talking about that novel, the last in the Origami Yoda series, at the Takoma Park Community Center in Takoma Park, Maryland. Other authors and illustrators at the event include Mac Barnett, Jory John, Jon Scieszka and Angleberger's wife, Cece Bell. As Origami Yoda might say: "Fun this sounds."

Angleberger's new novel picks up where the last one ended. Tommy, Dwight, Sara, Harvey and their friends are preparing for the seventh-grade field trip they had to fight for in "Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue." Then they get the awful news: No origami on the trip, by order of the principal. What will they do without Origami Yoda?

Local readers will recognize the field trip's destination: Washington's museums. The characters deal with noisy preschoolers at the National Museum of Natural History and get in trouble at the National Air and Space Museum. At lunch, the forces of good and evil collide when Harvey creates mean Emperor Pickletine from a sour pickle and Dwight makes Fruitigami Yoda from a Fruit Roll-Up.

"I'm going to miss these characters," Angleberger said by phone from his home near Blacksburg, Virginia. "When I started, I had no idea that the first book would turn into a series, so I'm really happy — and relieved — with how it all turned out."

He assures readers that, though the series is ending, the story will continue through Origamiyoda.com. On this Web site, fans — called Superfolders — can post photos of their origami creations and discuss the books.

These Superfolders have been really "stooky," to use a made-up word from the books. (It means "cool.") According to Angleberger, they even helped by sharing ideas for snack-food figures. Look for Cashew Bacca (Chewbacca), Fruit-Pie Walker (Luke Skywalker) and others on pages 55 to 59.

As a kid, Angleberger had many "stooky" interests that continue to fuel his work as an adult. He folded (a.k.a. did origami) constantly, he said, and "pretty much doodled on everything." He loved to read, especially zany books by Daniel Pinkwater, and created his first comic strip in seventh grade.

When he's writing, Angleberger likes to discover the story as he goes along rather than plan it out. He's working on two new projects: a series called "The Quikpick Papers" and a mystery he's creating with Bell.

"Cece is an amazing graphic novelist," he said of his wife. "And her book, 'El Deafo,' is sort of the real story behind Caroline" in Origami Yoda.

Stooky!

—Mary Quattlebaum

Meet the author (and other creators)

Tom Angleberger, Mac Barnett, Cece Bell, Jory John and Jon Scieszka talk about their books at a free event sponsored by Politics and Prose. First come, first seated.

Where: Takoma Park Community Center auditorium, 7500 Maple Avenue, Takoma Park, Maryland.

When: Friday at 7:30 p.m.

For more information: Call
202-364-1919 or visit
www.politics-prose.com/events.

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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/origami-yoda-book-series-ends-with-a-trip-to-the-dc-museums/2014/11/18/f3f7bc4e-6090-11e4-8b9e-2ccdac31a031_story.html