Origami Paper Animals

Good Reads.com

Origami Paper Airplanes is filled with new and outstanding folds that will delight, amuse, and inspire paper folders of all ages. They offer a wide variety of designs that are rated according to skill level. Everyone, from beginners to experienced folders, will find something here to delight the hand and eye. Each book opens with four pages of instructions in basic folding techniques, the symbols used in the book and a discussion of the various papers you work with. Then come the specific folds. Origami Paper Airplanes offers 28 different designs of aircraft that include traditional planes, new creations, and other flying objects such as windmills and frisbees. Extremely detailed technical drawings, in color, accompany the reader every step of the way... With their elegant and fascinating folds, these are among the most innovative origami books available. They are suited for folders of all ages and skill levels. Thoroughly tested and carefully designed instructions make it possible for anyone to achieve results on the first try.

Voya

These books boast beautiful photograph, well written introductions, and topics of interest to all ages.

Children's Literature

Twenty-eight animals are the stars of this small-format collection of origami instructions. The photographs of the animals are appealing. The fish is photographed with rocks and water reeds; the owl on a stump with acorns. The paper used in these samples is not of the traditional solid colors, so each animal is speckled or marbled. Unfortunately, the instructions not easy to follow. For example, number 9 of 10 steps to create a chick reads as follows--"Fold and unfold to bisect the angle on the left. Repeat on the other side. Reserve fold on these creases." Even with the line drawing, these instructions are very hard to follow. To make matters worse, the chick is designated a beginner activity. The animals are beautiful to look at, including a heron, elephant, dragonfly monkey and turtle. The more origami books I read, the more I believe this is an art that is best taught in person, not from a book. 2001, A Firefly Book, $9.95. Ages 8 up. Reviewer: Kristin Harris

VOYA

These two books, Origami Paper Airplanes and Origami Paper Animals, boast beautiful photographs, well-written introductions, and topics of interest to all ages. For the patient adult who always reads instructions twice before starting a project and who expects confusion even at the beginner level, there will be no disappointment with these titles. Younger aspiring paper pilots and origami artists or those less fastidious in direction reading might be so frustrated that they crash the books into the trash. To begin with, the instructions are not intuitive. Although steps in both books are illustrated clearly with a key to folding symbols at the beginning of the book, the directions are not presented in a logical order. For the first airplane, the directions do not read left to right or up and down but jump all over the page. The airplane book is divided into sections, but the sections are listed only in small print on the top of each right-hand page. Reading the description under the large font title "Ready to Land," one learns "the paper airplanes are original contemporary creations." This is the start of the section, New Creations. "Ready to Land" is the first plane, but this is not immediately obvious. The author also sometimes forgets to tell what size paper to use. For the instructional diagrams, both books use arrows and fold lines to illustrate which way to twist and fold the paper. Yet this reviewer needed to turn back and forth constantly to the diagram instructions at the front of each book—a difficult prospect in itself when holding a partially folded creature in one's hand—and even more frequently backtracked to refold projects in the opposite direction from which the arrowseemed to point. In addition, levels are discretionary in both books. The advanced bird was relatively simple because its many steps were well illustrated, but how to get from step six to step seven on the intermediate penguin remains a mystery. If there is a high demand for origami in the library, try Animals. The numbering is more consistent within projects (although it still jumps around a bit), and there are no confusing section divisions. It would not be prudent to recommend this title to inexperienced folders unless they possess incredible patience. Teachers and librarians might wish to learn the projects first and hold an introductory paper-folding workshop before handing the book to unsuspecting youth,
— Beth Karpas <%ISBN%>1552096289

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-Not so much biographies, these books focus on these men in relation to the work they have done. Torvalds created and manages the Linux operating system, Ellison is the mastermind behind Oracle, and Yang and Filo created Yahoo! while they were graduate students at Stanford. Fairly short and definitely accessible, the books will appeal not only to report writers, but also to recreational readers. The only disappointment is the illustrations. The black-and-white photos often have little to do with the subjects. For example, Ellison includes stock photos of Chicago, Berkeley, and Yosemite National Park. Still, because of their subjects, these biographies may find an audience.-Yapha Nussbaum Mason, Brentwood Lower School, Los Angeles Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.