He volunteers to make a journey and then is terrified by the prospects of leaving everything he’s ever known. Tree-ear is a completely real boy (well, I’ve never actually been a boy, but it seemed pretty real to me) he is thrilled by new responsibilities and then grumbles about the labor involved.

In A Single Shard, the character development is rich and subtle. But if you read the book, we’ll both know). Tree-ear knows that this is Min’s life long ambition and that, since a commission is for life and new commissions are given out only every few decades, this is Min’s only chance. That potter will make pottery solely for the king and must be the best potter that can be found. Gradually, Tree-ear’s tasks get more involved he is allowed to dig the clay for the pots and even help load the kiln.Īnd then, from China, comes an embassy, looking for a potter upon whom to bestow a royal commission. After a day or two, however, whenever he returns to get his hidden lunch bowl, he finds it completely refilled, which he soon discovers is thanks to Min’s wife. He then hides the remainder and takes it home to Crane-man to have for dinner. Every afternoon, he gets a delicious lunch, of which he eats only half. This arrangement greatly improves Tree-ear’s life. In exchange for his labors, Tree-ear will receive a daily meal. After his nine days are up, Tree-ear offers to work for the potter full-time Min has no assistant like the other potters and he is getting old enough that it is hard for him to do it all alone. He has high hopes of getting to throw pots, but alas, he’s instead to spend the long days cutting wood for the kiln.

One evening, through a series of mishaps, Tree-ear breaks a set of pots that Min has made and, after facing the furious potter, agrees to work for nine days to repay the damages. Min works the slowest rejecting pot after pot, even if they have no visible flaws, and making only one pot for the other potters’ five or six. The best potter in the village is Min, and Tree-ear loves to watch him throw pots on the wheel. The village they live in is known for its celadon pottery (pottery with a greenish/gray glaze). Set in 12th century Korea, Tree-ear is an orphan boy who lives under the bridge with an old crippled man named “Crane-man.” They are extremely poor and mostly scavenge for food, both in the woods and in the village refuse. The tone and themes of the book made me assume it was a much older book. It’s only a few years old, which surprised me. We both should have it’s a fantastic book, and definitely one of my favorite Newbery’s I’ve read this year.

A single shard by linda sue park