Paper Pandas and Jumping Frogs

Book by Temko, Florence

Grade 3-6 Temko has done everything to give this wide appeal: to a collection of over 50 paperfolds, using everything from business cards to poster paper, she has added prefatory encouragement (in question-and-answer format), quick essays on teaching origami, a history of paper and folding, dozens of easy craft projects, and a story with notes on suitable paper ("discarded printouts of a non-confidential nature," for example). Although her remarks are aimed at teachers and other adults new to the art, the models themselves are well within a child's abilities, assuming modest amounts of patience and dexterity. Written directions and line drawings are clear and simple, models are all made in a dozen steps or less, accompanying photos show the finished products and suggest uses for them. A few caveatsthe "fireplace fan" should not be set near an open flame, and it isn't mentioned that the dollar bow-tie looks much better if a crisp, new bill is used. These plus the lack of a bibliography are minor flaws in a book that will receive a gratifying amount of use. John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.