A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
What Grade Seven or Eight student hasn’t spent time imagining what it would be like to live in Korea during the 12th century (perhaps that’s a stretch). The Newberry Award winning book, A Single Shard takes us to this simpler time and place – to a small village called Ch-ulp’o. There we meet two main characters with peculiar names: Tree-Ear, an orphan boy, and his elderly guardian, Crane-man, a cripple, who does his best to look after the boy. The pair live under a bridge, and spend their days foraging for food. This seems to provide purpose enough in their lives, until Tree-ear discovers a potter named Min, who works magic with a potter’s wheel in his backyard studio.
In no time, Tree-ear becomes entranced as he silently watches the potter from behind a bush. He has never seen such a thing as a man who makes works of art by lumping clay on a spinning wheel. The more moments that Tree-Ear quietly watches the craftsman at work, the hungrier he gets to feel the clay between his own fingers. It is not long before yearning wins over reason and Tree-ear enters the studio so that he can touch one of the pots. When he is caught trespassing by Min, he drops the pot, and so becomes indebted to the potter. The unfortunate accident leads to a most fortunate apprenticeship, as the potter decides that Tree-ear must work for him for many days to re-pay his debt.
It is a thing of pride to watch Tree-ear discover a meaning to life so much larger than a bowl of food. It is a thing of beauty to watch the author take us deftly from Tree-ear’s small, base world to one much larger where Tree-ear flourishes as he develops his love of clay.
A Single Shard offers the reader a window into a world where a boy has no choice but to live by his wits. And just as Tree-ear learned to survive under the guidance of Crane-man, he learns to be useful under the tutelage of Min. Watch Tree-ear grow still further as chooses to take a long journey alone to the royal Korean court. When the journey proves to be dangerous and disastrous, find out how Tree-ear finds a way to make it worthwhile.
The subject material in a Single Shard is unique. It must be, or Grade Seven and Eight students might truly have spent time imagining it.
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I expect that every student in grade seven and eight indulges in some confidence-bashing statements in front of the mirror from time to time. “I know my friends like me, but why do I feel like I’m so different from them … How did those kids end up so popular … Why can’t I be that popular… Why does everyone think he’s so cool … I wish I were taller … What is that little freckle doing on the end of my nose…
Stargirl is a story about ‘the new girl’ at school. But where most new girls would kill to fit in, Stargirl really doesn’t seem to care about fitting in. In fact, this new student is so self-assured that she dares to be herself. She wears her hair the way she likes, dresses the way she likes, and does not bother with make-up. To a typically homogenous group of students, Stargirl stands out. Her confidence confounds the rest of the students, and they become mesmerized not only by her uniqueness, but by her guts.
Stargirl is an intriguing read because, here, we have a girl who is willing to ‘throw out the rule book.’ To any student, Stargirl’s attitude is utterly refreshing. But the really interesting thing about this book is the question it poses – how long can she pull it off. This story challenges each of us to think about our own identity. An identity that may not be so apparent in a blended mass of students in board shoes, blue jeans and hoodies. Stargirl also challenges us to accept that people ought to have the right to be different. In the middle years, it is easy to succumb to peer pressure but this book gives the student a chance to glimpse a character who is willing to fight that pressure. And that, my peers, is a satisfying thing!
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Emily’s Runaway Imagination by Beverly Cleary
Can imaginative Emily make her biggest dream come true?
Spunky Emily Bartlett lives in an old farmhouse in Pitchfork, Oregon’at a time when automobiles are brand-new inventions and libraries are a luxury few small towns can afford. Her runaway imagination leads her to bleach a horse, hold a very scary sleepover, and feed the hogs an unusual treat. But can she use her lively mind to help bring a library to Pitchfork?
Adventure is pretty scarce in Pitchfork, Oregon. So why shouldn’t Emily bleach Dad’s old plow horse or try some of her other ideas? “Written with Cleary’s customary warmth and humor…The time of the story, about 1920, is delightfully brought to life.”-Booklist
Novels written by Beverly Cleary are often a big hit with grade three students (especially girls). I would read aloud her novels to my grade three students as they often would lead us to discussions that the students easily related to. One novel that the students particularly were interested in was Ramona Quimbly, Age 8. In addition, this novel has been made into a movie and is available at the Regina Public Library.
Reading aloud the novel and following it up by viewing the movie, provided the opportunity to compare and contrast their perceptions of the characters to those depicted in the movie. As a parent I often read novels aloud to my children and follow them up by watching the movie. More often than not, after comparing the two, my children tend to enjoy the text much more than the movie itself. This serves as a great method to make children aware of the value reading a picture book or novel has over just simply watching the movie. Children begin to value the description and interpretation of the language within a text to their own personal experiences and background knowledge resulting in the child making more meaningful connections with the story line.