Origami (Step by Step)

Clive Stevens owns an advertising agency specializing in business to business and pan European accounts. A founder and committee member of the Advertising Art Society of London, Clive has won two gold and four silver awards for graphic design and illustration. He has written one book on papercrafts, and produced an animated television commercial that was the first real paper sculpture animation of its kind.

Grade 2-4-Aimed at beginners, this visually inviting primer pairs instructions for 10 satisfying, easy-to-make models, plus several preliminary folds and bases, with color photos of children creating and posing proudly with the models. The devil's in the details, however; not only does Stevens repeatedly ignore his own (simplistic) admonition that, "The rules of origami do not allow the paper to be cut, glued or decorated," but his "bird base" is a nonstandard, unfinished one; the tuck that locks his version of the "Blow-up Box" is weak; and he caps his "Flapping Bird" with poor instructions for making the wings move. In some cases, the step photos are either scanty or, in the "Space Rocket" and the "Japanese Card," badly angled, so that the paper seems to change color partway through. Finished off with perfunctory lists of books and vocabulary words, this subpar entry in the series should be regarded as, at best, a supplementary purchase.
John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.