Background and Summary
Linda Sue Park the author of A Single Shard, the 2002 Newbery Medal
winner, grew up as the daughter of Korean immigrants in Illinois. She always
wanted to be a writer, but it was not until after she got married and had two
children, that she wrote her first book, Seesaw
Girl which won the Bank Street Best Children's Books of the Year award in
2000. After the success of her first
book, Park wrote many other novels, one of which is A Single Shard. Adolescents and critics fell in love with her new
book. In fact, the book won six other awards besides the Newbery gold.
Set
in the small village of Ch’ulp’o on the coast of Korea in the twelfth century, A Single Shard tells the story of a
young orphan named Tree-ear. At twelve years old, Tree-ear is intelligent,
polite, and scrupulous. But, because he is an orphan, he lives with Crane-man,
a cripple, under a bridge. The two make their living by scavenging food from the
woods and garbage piles. But whenever he is not looking for food, Tree-ear
loves to watch Min, the best village potter, make beautiful creations with
clay. One day, when he thinks that Min is not watching, Tree-ear boldly picks
up a small puzzle box that Min is drying outside on a shelf. But when Min sees
him and shouts, Tree-ear accidently drops the box, breaking it. To pay for the
box, Tree-ear offers to work for Min for nine days. But even after his debt is
paid, Tree-ear wants to continue to work for Min because he hopes that Min will
teach him how to make a pot. Min accepts Tree-ears assistance, but refuses to
teach pottery to Tree-ear because the pottery trade passes from father to son.
Several
months pass, and it is announced that a royal emissary is coming to the village
to assign a royal pottery commission – every potter’s dream. During the
preparation for the emissary, another potter, Kang, develops a new glazing
technique called inlay work. When the emissary arrives he is impressed with the
new form and assigns a temporary commission to the other potter. However, the
emissary secretly tells Min that if he can produce the inlay work and bring it
to the capitol city of Songdo, he will receive a full commission because he is
a far more skilled potter than Kang. So Min immediately begins work on a new
set of pots.
Months
later, Tree-ear journeys on foot to Songdo carrying two of Min’s beautifully
crafted vases. The journey is arduous and takes Tree-ear further from home than
he has ever been before. All goes well until, on the cliffs just outside of
Puyo, two bandits attack and rob Tree-ear. They take his food and money, and
they throw the vases over the cliff. Tree-ear is distraught. But he collects
the biggest of the shards from the base of the cliff and takes them to Songdo
hoping that the emissary will be able to see his master’s skill in even
fragments of his work. When he reaches Songdo, the emissary politely receives
him and studies the shard. Then, the emissary awards Min the commission and
sends Tree-ear home by boat to tell Min the news. However, when he arrives at
home with the good news, Min is subdued. Then, Min reveals that Tree-ear’s best
friend Crane-man has died. The next day as Tree-ear gets back to work still
struggling with grief, Min reveals that he will train Tree-ear to be a potter,
and his wife tells Tree-ear that they would like to adopt him. The book ends
with Tree-ear looking at the mountains, coming to terms with everything that
has just occurred, and trying to picture what his first pot will look like.
Interest
A Single Shard interests a wide variety
of readers. First, boys would like the story because the story is realistic,
covers a considerable amount of time, occurs outdoors, and occurs in a distant
country. However, some elements of the story would not interest boy readers.
For example, the story lacks the fast-paced, action-packed plot that many boys
look for in books.
Second, girls
would enjoy reading this story because the story has a small cast of
characters, has an organized plotline, conveys the emotions and thoughts of the
main characters, and portrays a relatively confined setting.
Third, this book
would appeal to children in the middle adolescent stage of reading. They would like the fact that this book is a
historical fiction story about adolescent life. These children would be
concerned with understanding and testing their own problems through the world
of the book. However, children in the early adolescent stage of reading would
enjoy reading this book as well. They would like the fact that the book tells
what it was like to grow up around the world in the past. Because the book
appeals to both early and middle adolescents, teachers could use it to help
their students bridge the gap between the two reading stages.
Developing
Mature Readers
The novel deals with several aspects of growing up that young people face.
Growing Independent from Parents: Because
Tree-ear is an orphan, Crane-man serves as the parental figure in the book. But
Tree-ear grows progressively more independent from Crane-man throughout the
story. This independence is most evident in his trip to Songdo which he makes
alone. During the trip he must learn to overcome obstacles without any help
from Crane-man. Ironically, despite his growing independence, Tree-ear longs
for parents. This longing is fulfilled at the end of the story when Min and his
wife adopt Tree-ear. In the story, Tree-ear exemplifies a positive way to grow
independent from parents. Adolescents will see his loving respect for Crane-man,
Min, and Min’s wife as a pattern to copy in their own lives.
Working for Pay/Getting a Job: At the
beginning of the story Tree-ear is a scavenger. However, by the end of the
story, Tree-ear is working for Min. Even though the only payment he ever receives
for his work is forgiveness of his debt and food, getting a job changes
Tree-ear’s life. Despite these changes, Tree-ear provides a mostly positive
example of how to deal with work. As Tree-ear adapts to his new life, he
struggles to adjust to the type and amount of work that he is given. Tree-ear
works hard and never gives up, but he does get discouraged that he is unable to
make a pot. His experience is similar to what many adolescents will experience
when they enter the workforce in positions that they may not initially want or
enjoy. But they can learn from Tree-ear to work hard even if the work is not
always pleasant.
Finding
a Vocation:
Tree-ear’s biggest aspiration is to be a potter like Min someday. And while it
sometimes seems impossible to him, he never loses sight of his dream. Finally,
when Min adopts Tree-ear, Min tells Tree-ear that he will train Tree-ear to be
a potter. When the story ends, Tree-ear is thinking about what his pot will
look like. Then, Park tells the reader that one famous pot from ancient Korea
is decorated with hundreds of inlaid cranes. The reader knows that Tree-ear
fulfilled his dream and honored his friend.
Tree-ear found
his calling early on in the book. Nevertheless, he struggles to hold on to this
calling because of the obstacles in his way. For example, when the thieves
smash the pots, Tree-ear nearly gives up and returns home. However, he
continues to travel to Songdo and eventually wins the commission for Min. Through
this difficulty Park teaches adolescents that when they find their calling,
they should stick to it even when it is not easy. Her book shows that the
long-term satisfaction is worth the short-term suffering.
Gaining
a Sense of Achievement: Tree-ear accomplishes many tasks that give him a
sense of achievement. On the first day that he works for Min, he is proud of
the hard work that he has done. Later, he feels a sense of achievement when he
learns how to tell when the clay is ready to be worked with. Finally, Tree-ear
gains a sense of achievement when he returns to Ch’ulp’o with the news of the
commission. His journey had been successful despite all the obstacles that he
had to overcome. Tree-ear’s example shows adolescents that despite seemingly
insurmountable obstacles, they can succeed. They will learn, like Tree-ear did,
to take every journey one step at a time.
Becoming
Aware of and Living Consistently with Beliefs and Values: Several times in
the book Tree-ear’s morality is tested. In the first chapter of the book, he
alerts a farmer to a hole in his sack of rice rather than wait for the rice to
drop to the ground so he could pick it up. As a result, the farmer rewards him.
Later, Tree-ear spies on Kang and discovers a secret, but after consulting
Crane-man he decides not to reveal the secret because he believes that telling
the secret would be stealing. Tree-ear values honesty and firmly believes that
stealing is wrong and his actions are consistent with his words.
Adolescents can
admire Tree-ear’s values and his consistency. Tree-ear teaches children that
consulting adults about a problem can help them work through the situation, but
ultimately their actions are their own responsibility.
Potential
Issues with This Book
A Single Shard does not contain very
many objectionable elements, but it handles those elements that it does contain
in a positive way that parents and teachers can appreciate. For example,
Tree-ear deals with the temptation to steal in many instances in the story, but
each time he decides to be honest. Teachers could use Tree-ear to show the
positive results of honesty. In addition, the book does have some objectionable
characters in it. The men who rob Tree-ear are certainly not wholesome
characters, but Park intends her readers to see them as unsavory men. Park
juxtaposed the robber’s actions with Tree-ear’s to help the reader see not only
the evil of stealing, but also the goodness of integrity. She deals with other
instances of stealing in the book in this same manner. Any negative characters
and actions highlight positive characters and actions. For the most part, Park
makes good look appealing and evil look disgusting.
One
issue that Park does not present so clearly is suicide. In a tale that
Crane-man tells to Tree-ear, women jumped off of a cliff to avoid capture by an
invading army. The story is meant to illustrate true courage. Park makes this
lesson very clear when Crane-man relates the moral at the end of the story –
“Remember that leaping into death is not the only way to show true courage”
(117). As a result, parents and teachers may want to discuss the issue of
suicide with their children and students when reading this book.
Furthermore,
some parents might be concerned about the influence of eastern religions on the
book. Although Buddhism does appear in the novel, Park is using it to help
create the setting of the novel. As a result, Buddhism plays a very minor role
in the story. For example, several times Buddhist monks are mentioned as
playing humanitarian roles. However, none of the main characters seem to be
religious.
Recommendation
I
would definitely recommend this book to teachers for use in the classroom. A Single Shard is most suited for a 5th
or 6th grade classroom because of its relatively simple vocabulary
and content. However, teachers can recommend this book to any of their
adolescent students for several reasons. First, the book is wholesome. Parents
and teachers will not have to worry about exposing their children and students
to gratuitous evil. In fact, the book even teaches several moral lessons
through positive examples such as resisting the temptation to steal, overcoming
obstacles, and treating a person’s authorities with respect. Second, Park
created an engaging story that adolescents would enjoy. The plot does not have
any dead spots in it, and the characters are relatable. Adolescents will
connect with Tree-ear’s struggle to be honest, to work hard, and to fight for
his dream. Third, students can learn from the thematic material of the book.
For example, as a coming of age story, Tree-ear deals with many of the same
struggles that adolescents are going through such as learning to work, standing
up for personal values, and discovering a calling, and he deals with them in a
positive way. In addition, Park stresses integrity, honesty, and politeness in
her book. These issues are all prevalent in an adolescent’s life. Furthermore,
because Park emphasizes the respect and love that Tree-ear has for those he is
gaining independence from, the book shows adolescents the proper way to gain
independence from parents.
Overall,
this book should be taught or recommended to students. Park teaches adolescents,
through Tree-ear’s example, the proper way to deal with growing up. Not only
will teachers and parents find the book wholesome and edifying, but adolescents
will enjoy it as well.
Resources
for Teaching or Research
Many
teaching resources are available in many different formats for this book. For example,
Carol Hurst’s Children’s Literature Website provides a summary, discussion
questions and possible classroom activities. This website covers the book as a
whole. For more specific chapter by chapter teaching ideas, Teacher Created
Resources provides a literature unit guide for the book. This guide contains
activities, quizzes, tests, discussion questions, and worksheets for individual
chapters. In addition, Lisa Gonzalez has developed a short literature unit for
the 4th grade available through the University of Texas. This unit
comprises of several group activities dealing with many different aspects of
the book. If parents have questions about the book, Focus on the Family
provides a book review that Christian parents would find helpful. In a concise
manner, the article summarizes the book, lays out the main themes, and reveals
any potential issues.
Teaching
Strategies
To help students understand the
context for the novel, teachers can assign a WebQuest. In the WebQuest, students will work in pairs
on a computer researching different aspects of the book. For example, one pair
of students might be researching celadon pottery while another pair researches
Ch’ulp’o. In the next class period, students should give an oral report on
their findings. If the teacher is pressed for time, these reports might simply
be two interesting facts that the student learned in his research. The WebQuest
will help students not only learn to research using the computer, but also to
understand the historical context of the novel.
Writing
always helps students better comprehend what they have read. To integrate
writing and reading this novel, teachers can use reading response journals.
After reading a chapter aloud in class the teacher can pose a question about
the novel which students will respond to in their journals. These questions can
focus on the moral dilemmas that Tree-ear faces, the themes of the novel, or what
the student would do if he were in Tree-ear’s place. Journaling about these
topics will help the students to become better readers, writers, and thinkers.
Teachers
can also use this novel to teach literary terms and concepts. For example,
after a short lesson on a literary term or concept like protagonist and
antagonist, students can create a chart that shows each of the characters in
the novel and their literary function. This can also be used for concepts like the
coming-of-age story. For this lesson, students create a chart with the steps in
a coming-of-age story and the events in Tree-ear’s life that complete these
steps. This activity will not only help them to understand the concepts in A Single Shard, but will also help them
to recognize literary patterns in other books.
Focus
on the Family. Focus on the Family. FotF,
2013. Web. 9 Apr. 2013.
Gonzalez, Lisa. Webquest for 4th Grade: A Single Shard. University of
Texas at Brownville, 2004. Web. 9 Apr. 2013.
Hart,
Melissa. A Guide for Using A Single Shard
in the Classroom. Westminster, CA: Teacher Created Resources, 2002. Print.
Hurst,
Carol Otis and Rebecca Otis Hurst. Carol
Hurst’s Children’s Literature Site. Rebecca Hurst, 2013. Web. 9 Apr. 2013.
Park,
Linda Sue. A Single Shard. New York:
Random House, 2001. Print.
