The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee. by Tom Angleberger. August 7, 2012. Harry N. Abrams. 160 pages. ISBN: 9781419703928When Dwight created Origami Yoda, he convinced almost every one of his classmates that he could actually summon the Force to get Yoda to help them with their problems. Now, with Dwight at a new school, everyone is at a loss - that is, until Sara shows up at school with Fortune Wookiee. She claims that Dwight, who has otherwise been acting strange, threw him to her from his window, and that he intends him to be used in the same was as Yoda, to answer important life questions. Because Fortune Wookiee only speaks in grunts and roars, Sara also creates Han Foldo to be his interpreter. Before long, another case file is underway, once again trying to determine the legitimacy of an origami Star Wars creation’s abilities to solve middle school problems.
This series has such a great premise, it’s no wonder that kids eat these books up. Kids love Star Wars, and most kids are intrigued by origami, even if they have never folded any. This third book in the series manages to keep things interesting by taking Dwight out of the equation and letting the girls have a chance to sort of be in control and set the tone for the wookiee’s questions and answers. (I’m sure this is why Angleberger chose a fortune teller for the paper folding technique this time - those things are always so popular among girls!) This shift gives the series a chance to try something new, and introduces new story possibilities into the already-established universe. The case file also does a nice job of gathering basic clues that careful readers can piece together to figure out the twist at the end of the story.
As in the previous books of the series, I still had a hard time managing the huge cast of characters. Some characters like Dwight and Murky have such quirky personalities that they’re easy to remember, but others are just names to me, or styles of handwriting, and I find them to be somewhat interchangeable. I realize that the illustrations do give us a hint as to what the characters look like, which might help a more visual reader, but I don’t tend to spend much time on illustrations if there’s text to be read, so those faces are just as meaningless to me as the names. I wish there were more textual cues to the different personalities - that’s the one thing that is lacking in each of these books. The plot is interesting, and the case file contributions are interesting, but the characters feel flat and I can’t connect with them emotionally.
Still, though, I’m dying to know what happens next, and I was thrilled to see Yoda’s message on the final page of the book: “The end this is? Way no!”
I borrowed The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee from my local public library.
For more about this book, visit Goodreads and Worldcat.
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder