Origami Books for Kids

General discussion about Origami, Papers, Diagramming, ...
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OrigamiBilly
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Origami Books for Kids

Post by OrigamiBilly »

Hey everyone, origami newbie here so bear with me. My little sister did a one day origami program at the community center this summer, and now she wants to do more of it and wants my help. Being the helpful older brother I am, of course I will help her :D The first step for us is to get some books about origami that we can read together so that we better understand the folds, the way different papers act and all the other important aspects before we get into some intense paper folding. Can anyone suggest some good books for this? Ideally I would like us to get a series of books that starts quite simple, and has you learning new things with every book and trying a hard model as well.

For reference, my sister is 9 years old and her first experience with origami was this summer. I am a complete newbie, so she will have to help me a bit to get started I'm sure( which is the reason I want us to get some very beginner books). If anyone know of somewhere that we could get some origami books from, or suggestions on good books to get that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance everyone!

I wrote down the books and the authors that were suggested to me, and took a trip to the local thrift shops/garage sales to see what I could find. Unfortunately there was not much to look at, but one lady said they had listed their books online before so I went to the site she used and found some origami books at https://www.for-sale.ie/origami-book that were in great condition and they got here very quickly. Thanks for all the help everyone!
Last edited by OrigamiBilly on September 8th, 2017, 4:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
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origami_8
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Re: Origami Books for Kids

Post by origami_8 »

Hello Billy,
for a beginner I would recommend any of the books by Paulo Mulatinho. I think they are all out of print now, but a quick search on the Internet showed me that most of them are available used for a bargain.
A good amount of models in there, are either to play with, or can be used in some other way.
Another book that is pretty good, but a little bit more advanced, is Jeremy Shafer's "Origami to Astonish and Amuse". Again, it contains action models almost exclusively.
If you are more into animals, John Montroll got a variety of really good books with clear diagrams, that are suitable for beginners.

I like to mention, that there are also very many video tutorials online, but it is better to start out with a book and get familiar with the folding symbols used there. It opens up the huge world of diagrams. You can also find lots of diagrams online.
NeverCeaseToCrease
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Re: Origami Books for Kids

Post by NeverCeaseToCrease »

Genuine origami by Jun Maekawa is the one I used to get started. It has a wide range "from easy to complex," so that you can fold simple things and move up when you think you're ready. Additionally, the book has lessons along the way about several techniques the author used.
If you buy it, don't be intimidated by the cover; use the demon model as a goal to reach by folding the simple models.
OrigamiBilly
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Re: Origami Books for Kids

Post by OrigamiBilly »

Thanks for the replies origami_8 and NeverCeaseToCrease, those all seem like some good books that would be great for our journey into origami. I will head out to the flea market this weekend and see if they I can find any of the books from the writers/artists that you mentioned, hopefully we will find something :D
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ahudson
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Re: Origami Books for Kids

Post by ahudson »

John Montroll's book "Easy Animal Origami" in particular is really good for beginners. For the past couple months, somebody in our local origami group has been leaving a copy out on a table so beginners have something to do if we're teaching a model they aren't ready for.
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