A Single Shard: A Newbery Award Winner

by Linda Sue Park

Book Overview

The Newbery Medal-winning tale of an orphan boy whose dream of becoming a master potter leads to unforeseen adventure in ancient Korea.

Tree-ear is an orphan boy in a 12th-century Korean village renowned for its ceramics. When he accidentally breaks a delicate piece of pottery, he volunteers to work to pay for the damage. Putting aside his own dreams, Tree-ear resolves to serve the master potter by embarking on a difficult...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0547534264
• ISBN13: 9780547534268
• Release Date: January 2011
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 7.5"
• Age Range: 10 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 7

Customer Reviews

Ribbons - A Single Shard

There is a boy named Tree-ear who is best friends with a man named Crane-man. They together live under a bridge on the outer edge of the village near the forest where he watches master potter Min creating beautiful pieces of pottery. He wishes to become like Min and so becomes Min's apprentice. After a long time of just being apprentice, Min sends Tree-ear on a very important journey to the kings court to deliever pottery. When Tree-ear returns, he finds Crane-man has passed away and Min decides to take him in as his adoptive son. I also like this part of the book because this is when Min realizes how he really missed having a child to love and look after, after the passing on of his young son. He finally realizes that he should take in Tree-ear as his own. I liked this book a lot because it talked of the korean culture in a way that everyone could understand. Also it struck me very deep at heart when Tree-ear, finally coming within a hairs breath of fulfilling his dreams finds out that his closest friend who helped him get there, Crane-man has passed on. I also like this book because of the great detail it goes into to describe the procedures for making pottery. This book takes you so smoothly through different emotions that you won't even know when your crying or laughing, you'll just know that your having a good time reading the book. My favorite part of the book is when Tree-ear returns to find that Crane-man has passed on, and Master Min tells Tree-ear that Crane-man would not let go of the mini monkey he made. I think its very touching to know that even when you greatest friend and family is not forgetting you even at the verge of death and after they have passed on.

An Orphan Boy

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park is a tale of overcoming the limitations set by one's society through hard work and perseverance. The protagonist, a young orphan boy named Tree-ear is our guide through 12th century Korean life. The underside of a bridge serves as a home for Tree-ear and his older friend Crane-man in the small town of Ch'ul'po. Tree-ear and Crane-man spend much of their days scavenging for food in garbage heaps and on occasion finding fish. Aside from this being the young boy that Tree-ear is, he gets curious and ends up spying on the master potter min. When Tree-ear's curiosity gets the best of him, he waits until Min is gone and begins to handle the beautiful Celadon Pottery that Min has crafted. In an instant it slips from Tree-ears hands and breaks. This begins Tree-ear's journey as a helper to the potter Min, thus to pay off his debt of the broken pottery. The story unravels quickly as Tree-ear wants so badly to make a pot of his very own; however Min would never let a young orphan boy learn his very sacred trade. As the reader follows Tree-ear we too, sit and hope that he will be able to over come his predestined fate as an orphan boy.Ms. Park takes the reader on an emotional journey with Tree-ear as we see him make sacrifices for his dear friend Crane-man and work even when it seemed like Min was never happy with him. Tree-ear's feelings and struggles come to life as he experiences despair in not pleasing the potter Min. Tree-ear's success are also touching; however you will have to read the book to find out how. Ms. Park does an exceptional job of demonstrating the roles of various people in a typical Korea society. The master potter is a perfectionist who finds it indecent to apprentice anyone but a "real" son. Potter Min's wife is the traditional woman of the house who takes care of the family and at times even takes care of Tree-ear behind Min's back. Having all these roles clearly defined helps the reader to see how Tree-ear really is defying what the town has written as his fate.I would recommend this book to all children ages 8 and above. It really gives children a sense of societal roles, hard work, family traditions, and other cultures.

Another Place; Another Time

A short time ago I wrote about how I find the Booker Prize to be one of the few awards that consistently recognizes truly excellent books. The other award that I think does as well is the Newbery Medal. As always, there is varying quality even among the winners of this award but I found this book to be one of the best of the best.First of all, I always appreciate books that take me to places I've never been. Certainly, this story of twelfth century Korea does that. Additionally, it describes various processes of pottery-making, something else with which I was not very familiar.Most importantly, however, this is a story filled with wonderful characters. Tree-ear is an orphan who lives beneath a bridge with an old man named Crane-man. Slowly, Tree-ear works his way into the family of a master potter, Min & his wife, by doing work which the old potter now finds difficult. Ultimately, Tree-ear is sent on a long journey to the capital with a sample of Min's work to obtain a royal commission but, when the samples are destroyed along the way, he can only take a shard of the former pottery to the commissioner.This is a beautiful story which is well worth reading--and that includes any "adults" who might be reading this. Remember, if you can't read a "children's book" and enjoy it, then your child should probably not be reading it either.

This book deserved the Newbery

I am 12 years old, and I liked this book a lot. Once I started reading it, I couldn't stop. I ended up finishing it in about an hour and fifteen minutes. Even though the plot is very simple, there's a lot of messages inside of it. It is similar to the box that Tree-Ear finds that is simple on the outside, but inside it has many other boxes in a complex layout. For example, when the potter Min's wife discoveres Tree-Ear is saving the lunch he receives from her, she refils his bowl even when he hids it. When Tree-Ear finds the re-filled bowl, instead of being greedy the next day and eating the whole thing because he knows it will be refilled, he only eats half. Tree-Ear and Crane-Man don't have much, but they are thankful for the little that they do have. I think this book is a very good book for children, and I think it deserved to win the Newbery award.

A Twist on Familiar Orphan Story

As a Korean person, I'm quite familiar with the orphan story tradition that exists in Korean culture and literature. When I was a kid, my parents told me they picked me up under a bridge when they wanted to chide me for some mischief, and I used to cry. It may sound strange to westerners, but the 'orphan under a bridge' is a familiar archetypal story that's been passed on through generations through oral storytelling as well as narrative ones. Korea is a country that's been through countless attacks and subjugations by other countries and empires, and the possibility that a child could suffer the plight of being an 'orphan under the bridge' strikes a particular chord of fear and pity for the Koreans.Linda Sue Park does a fabulous job of taking this traditional Korean story module as a catalyst for a well-developed tale of triumph of a boy who shouldn't have overcome the odds but did. Placing the protagonist boy in 12th century Korea was a shrewd move, as it was the era when Korean art was deemed to be in its apex, especially its pottery. As we follow Tree Ear, the hero of the book, trying to overcome many obstacles to become the master potter, we also become aware of the rich culture and tradition of an exotic land.It's a tribute to Ms. Park that she does this without sentimentalizing and 'orientalising' the world that she depicts. (Although I question the translation of the boy's name into 'Tree Ear', a la Amy Tan) We only get a deeply moving tale, a bildungsroman of a boy who came into his own despite the odds. It's a common story structure, but it works unfailingly through Ms. Park's convincing and inspired narrative and the previously uncharted terrain of 12th century Korea. Very well done. Get this book for your kids but steal it away from them at night when they're sleeping and read it yourself.