Review by Booklist Review
During her first day at her new school, Lissy feels ignored, so while eating lunch alone, she creates an origami bird to keep her company. Then the bird, which she names Menu, magically flutters to life. With Menu in her pocket, Lissy feels better, and she folds more paper friends. At the playground, Lissy spins her menagerie on the merry-go- round and loses them in the wind, but happily, a girl finds and returns Menu, and a new friendship begins. With a minimal, evenly paced text, Lin's story captures authentic new-student feelings. Like many kids, Lissy works through her loneliness privately, rather than by telling a parent, but her inventive methods will reassure kids. Lin's bright, cheerful paintings, enlivened with colorful, origami-paper-inspired patterns, boost the story's comforting tone, and a final image, showing Lissy's blown-away paper friends in Paris enjoying coffee, adds to the whimsy. Origami instructions appear on the endpapers. A solid choice for children harboring new-school anxieties, this will partner well with Helen Stephens' Blue Horse (2003), which has a similar premise.--Engberg, Gillian Copyright 2007 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-Lissy, a new girl at school, discovers that her imagination can help her make friends when an inspiration comes from an unlikely source. Sitting alone in the cafeteria, she folds her menu into a little paper crane. (If the story has a bumpy moment, this is it. A school cafeteria table that offers a menu is unusual if not an anomaly.) She names the paper figure "Menu," and it can blink and flutter its wings. Lissy's mom asks her if she has made any friends that day at school and she truthfully replies, "I did make one friend." She makes many more, but when she leads the origami cats, dogs, birds, and a giraffe to the playground, they are swept away by a gust of wind. A girl named Paige returns Menu to Lissy and asks if she'll show her how to make a crane of her own. Well-illustrated directions for folding a paper crane are appended. The illustrations are bright and variously patterned, much like a busy Matisse, but also call to mind quality origami paper. Children will find the artwork compelling and the story of making friends of interest.-Teresa Pfeifer, Alfred Zanetti Montessori Magnet School, Springfield, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Lissy, who's lonely in her new school, folds origami animals that come alive and keep her company until they accidentally get blown far away. The one remaining crane attracts the attention of another child; soon Lissy is making numerous (human) friends. Many readers will empathize with Lissy while enjoying the brightly patterned, extra-large origami animals in the illustrations. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Shy Lissy feels alone with no friends at her new school. By herself at lunch, she transforms the red menu into an origami paper crane that, in her imagination, comes to life. Encouraged by her solution to her loneliness, Lissy continues to fold and bend paper each day, creating a menagerie of origami animals to keep her company. But her paper friends are too light for a strong wind at the playground, and in the blustery weather are carried away through the air. Only the crane remains, rescued by another little girl who returns it to Lissy and initiates a new friendship. Soon Lissy's circle of friends expands as she provides origami instruction in exchange for camaraderie. Set against a background of origami design papers, Lin's bright colorful paintings of an Asian girl amid a diverse group of children bring out the typical theme of friendship juxtaposed with the symbolism of the paper crane representing peace and happiness. A quiet, tender story of one child's coping strategy with a successful and creative outcome. Instructions for origami paper crane appended. (Picture book. 4-6) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
