Origami in Action : Paper Toys That Fly, Flap, Gobble, and Inflate

This is an amazing book. Every model does something: glide, flap, inflate, or otherwise move. It's an outstanding reference book and will provide hours of family entertainment if parental patience can stay the course. (Now make a butterfly that flaps! Now make one for me too! And a barking wolf! And a pecking woodpecker!)

For me, any origami book containing the balloon (also known as waterbomb) is a good one. There's also an inflatable rabbit directly based on it, and a further refinement to the rabbit pattern. More fun! The only action origami figure that I would have liked to see here and did not, was the jumping frog. But there is so much else, including a bassist who bows his instrument (start with a very big piece of paper!).

The show more directions are (so far, having tried about half a dozen of the "easy" and one of the "intermediate" models) pretty good. Sometimes towards the end they seem to try to put two or three folds into one step. This may be why our wagging dog did not wag, but the 4-year-old could easily and enthusiastically wag it himself so it was all good. I am definitely in the market for a copy of this book to delight our family. show less

Starting with descriptions of basic folds, this well illustrated book progressively gets harder with interesting patterns. It is not for an absolute beginner to dive right into but an excellent book for broadening your skills.