Emperor Pickletine Rides the Bus (Origami Yoda, #6)

Emperor Pickletine Rides the Bus (by Tom Angleberger; narrated by Mark Turetsky et al) - 3 hours, 35 minutes

The final installment in Tom Angleberger's Origami Yoda series, sees kids from McQuarrie Middle School go on a field trip to Washington, DC. For those unfamiliar with the series, it centers

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around a loser named Dwight who folds a paper Yoda figure that dispenses wisdom and advice to his classmates. Seemingly divorced from Dwight himself, the paper figure achieves a certain mystic aura among most students, suspicion to some ('cause there's always at least one person like that,) and frustration for all of the teachers. As the series goes on, more paper figures are introduced, all from the Star Wars cast of characters. It's fun, and while the print books are heavily illustrated, the audio works surprisingly well on its own. The production value across the series is a little uneven (splicing the different narrators' sessions together seems to be a recurring issue resulting in some extra long pauses in some of the titles); but "Emperor Pickletine" seems to have had a better post engineering on it than the other titles.

Tommy, the principal chronicler of the series is voiced by Mark Turetsky, who, as always, turns in a performance great for capturing the tone of a middle-grader (as opposed to sounding like an adult mimicking a child.) He does an awesome Chewbacca impression (check out The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee), which sadly wasn't called for this time; but to make up for it, Dwight actually speaks in this book, and he is *perfectly* rendered by Tom Angleberger himself!

Even if you haven't listened to the others in the series, the book is entertaining and fun; and I'm sad to see it end.
Great for family listening :-)

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The Origami Rebellion has finally convinced empre...principal Rabbski to help them. Ms. Rabbski then begins returning all the fun clubs and activities to the kids of Mcquarrie Midddle School. The book takes place when the kids are going to Washington D.C. on a field trip. The book follows the kids

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as they face problems involved with the field trip including tiny bus toilets, paper air planes, and of course Harvey. Harvey, against Ms. Rabbski's rules, brings an origami puppet onto the bus. The puppet is Emperor Pickletine, a black origami puppet with a pickle for a face. Pickletine begins causing trouble for the gang of kids, making their miserable days even worse.

This was a satisfying conclusion to the series. It was great seeing the kids with troubles other than Ms. Rabbski or Edu-Fun for once. The book showed sides of the characters that usually don't come up in the series.The ending had an amazing plot twist in it that leaves us with even more questions than when we started the book. If you loved the series like I do, then this is the book for you. A part of me wishes there was more, but another part of me thinks that this was the way it should've ended. Finally, I will end my review with one simple word...."Purple."

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"Emperor Pickletine Rides the Bus" is the last book in the Origami Yoda series by Tom Angleberger. In this book, the seventh graders of McQuarrie Middle School are finally going on their field trip to Washington DC. This is the field trip they had to fight for in the last book, Princess Labelmaker

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to the Rescue. Tommy, Remi, Cassie, Sara, Amy and Mike are very excited about the field trip, but it starts badly because Principal Rabbski bans cell phones, origami figures, and all paper on the field trip. In the story, everyone divides into buddy groups. They are supposed to divide based on the museum they want to visit, but the kids just pick who they want to hang out with for the day. One group goes on the slow yellow school bus while the others get to ride on fast chartered buses. The kids on the yellow bus are upset that they are on the same, boring school bus they always ride, but kids on the comfy bus have to deal with a weird chaperone named Mr. Good Clean Fun who is a germaphobe and has a monkey puppet named Soapy. The ride gets worse when Harvey ignores the origami ban and makes Emperor Pickletine who has a pickle face and wants kids to join the Sour Side. Luckily, Dwight has some fruit roll-ups and makes a Fruitigami Yoda. Fruitigami Yoda uses the Force to rescue the kids from some bad situations like being stuck on the side of the road with only astronaut ice cream to eat.

"Emperor Pickletine Rides the Bus" is an awesome book. I would definitely recommend it to all my friends. In fact, I would recommend the whole Origami Yoda series because these books are so fun to read. I enjoy the Star Wars references, and I like that the characters in the book are in middle school like me. I’m really sad that the series is ending. Even though this is supposed to be the last book, I still keep hoping for another one. One of the characters in the book (Tommy) even says, “the end this is not!” I hope it’s really not the end.

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Fans of origami and/or Star Wars are likely to enjoy this, but both my seventh-grader and I were disappointed. There are plenty of jokes, but I don't think it's necessary to have everyone paired off into couples to tie it up happily. Honestly, that seemed just wrong in a book about middle school.

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The series was much more appealing to me when it was focused on standardized testing and disobedience.

Library copy

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The kids from McQuarrie Middle School are back and they are off on a field trip to Washington D.C. They worked hard for this field trip and are very excited, but Principal Rabbski has banned origami on the trip. How will the kids survive the trip without advice from Origami Yoda? Dwight has a

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backup plan, as usual. He brings lime green fruit roll ups and uses them to make an emergency Fruitigami Yoda. Unfortunately, Harvey brings a wrinkly, hateful pickle, Emperor Pickletine. Is Pickeltine trying to tempt Harvey to the dark side? How will the kids navigate the challenges of a class trip without their origami counterparts? And will the field trip be the adventure the kids expected or will it turn into a total disaster?

This is a fun story about a bunch of 7th graders who need advice to navigate the situations and issues that come up in their daily lives. Their unusual solution is an origami Yoda puppet who speaks through their friend Dwight. My son loves these stories. They are original and creative and very humorous. I enjoy reading the stories with him, the twists and turns are amusing.

Not sure if this is the last book in this series, the end leaves it kind of up in the air.

Recommended to:
Middle grades students (grades 3-8) who enjoy humorous stories and school situations. This is only related to Star Wars in a slight way that the origami characters are Star Wars characters. You do not need to know much about Star Wars to enjoy the stories.

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