A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

Review by Karen McKinnon 

What Grade Seven or Eight student hasn’t spent time imagining what it would be like to live in Korea during the 12^th 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.