A Single Shard
| Author | |
| Abstract |
Park (Seesaw Girl) molds a moving tribute to perseverance and creativity in this finely etched novel set in mid- to late 12th-century Korea. In Ch’ul’po, a potter’s village, Crane-man (so called because of one shriveled leg) raises 10-year-old orphan Tree Ear (named for a mushroom that grows "without benefit of "parent-seed"). Though the pair reside under a bridge, surviving on cast-off rubbish and fallen grains of rice, they believe "stealing and begging... made a man no better than a dog." From afar, Tree Ear admires the work of the potters until he accidentally destroys a piece by Min, the most talented of the town’s craftsmen, and pays his debt in servitude for nine days. Park convincingly conveys how a community of artists works (chopping wood for a communal kiln, cutting clay to be thrown, etc.) and effectively builds the relationships between characters through their actions (e.g., Tree Ear hides half his lunch each day for Crane-man, and Min’s soft-hearted wife surreptitiously fills the bowl). She charts Tree Ear’s transformation from apprentice to artist and portrays his selflessness during a pilgrimage to Songdo to show Min’s work to the royal court he faithfully continues even after robbers shatter the work and he has only a single shard to show.
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| Year of Publication |
2001
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| Number of Pages |
148
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| Publisher |
Clarion Books
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| City |
New York
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| ISSN Number |
0-395-97827-0 (hardcover)
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Reviews
Please login to review this resourceBook Review: A Single Shard
Rebecca Nazario Wright
1st & 2nd Grade
Falk School
Book Review
A Single Shard
This Newberry Medal-winning short novel is a great read, particularly for grades 3 (as a read-aloud) through middle school. The setting is 12th century Korea, and the book does a great job of showing what life for common folk was like during this time, particularly the life of members of the craftsman/artisan class. Tree- Ear, the main character is an orphan who is essentially homeless; he lives under a bridge with a disabled elderly man, Crane-Man. After a mishap involving a pottery box, Tree-Ear finds himself working off a “debt” to Min, the local potter. Through this experience, Tree-Ear realizes that he wants to become a potter himself, and after a series of trials and an arduous journey to the capital to show an example of Min’s work to an emissary of the Emperor, Tree-Ear eventually is adopted and apprenticed by Min’s family.
The tale does a nice job of outlining what everyday life was like in 12th century Korea, and the characters are generally richly portrayed. The reader gets a strong sense of not only what everyday life was like, but what it meant to be an orphan in a culture where much depended on Confucian notions of family and filial piety. The hard life of a craftsman is outlined clearly, leaving the reader with an even greater sense of awe at the immense beauty of the celadon pottery made in these technologically “primitive” times (compared to today’s “shortcuts”). The novel nods to the particularly hard aspects of life in these times when easing this harshness with an age-appropriate happy ending.
This book is, in short, a wonderful piece of writing, and is written for an older audience. As a 1st and 2nd grade teacher, I do not think I could recommend it as a read-aloud for the younger set. The complex nature of Korean society during this time period coupled with the need for an understanding of life as an orphan, apprenticeship and class systems put this book beyond the reach of the average 1st and 2nd grader. That being said, I think that perhaps excerpts could be read to give an understanding of what was involved in creating such beautiful pottery, for example; as part of a larger unit on Korean art, I may read some excerpts about how one didn’t just go in and flip a switch to turn on the kiln, but instead spent long hours chopping and hauling wood, etc. I feel that at the young primary grade level, the book can be used to illustrate concepts that are being taught in a more “direct” fashion. And, by reading some brief excerpts, I would hope to pique the interest of the kids so that they would return to this book at a later date.
