Book Reflection - A Single Shard

Park, L. (2001). A single shard. New York: Clarion Books

Tree-Ear is a homeless orphan boy who lives under a bridge with his friend and father figure, Crane-man. Fascinated by the art of pottery, Tree-ear hides in the woods near the house of Min, a master potter, and watches him make a beautiful pot. Later, out of his eagerness to learn the pottery trade, Tree-ear sneaks into Min’s shop, and while looking around, breaks a piece of pottery. In order to pay for the damage, Tree-ear must work for Min. Though the days are long and the work is difficult, Tree-ear learns about pottery.
Hoping Min will receive a royal commission to make pottery for the palace, Tree-ear journeys to the King’s Court to present the Emissary with a piece of Min’s pottery. However, during his journey, robbers destroy Min’s vase. Consequently, upon his arrival at the palace, Tree-ear has but a single shard left of the vase to present to the Emissary. Since Min’s work is of the finest quality, the Emissary recognizes its worth and grants Min the commission. When Tree-ear returns to give Min the good news, he discovers that Crane-man died in a terrible accident. Though devastated by his friend’s death, Tree-ear finds hope when Min’s wife welcomes him into their home as their son.
A Single Shard is a splendid work of realistic fiction that magnificently shows the beauty of human relationships through its characters. Tree-ear is the protagonist in the story. Park describes the character fully in the story. She shows his good and bad traits. For example, he is a hard worker when he is with Min (the antagonist), but also eavesdrops and spies on others. I especially enjoyed reading about Tree-ear and Crane-man’s complex relationship. One aspect shows a father and son relationship while another shows them as equal parts of a team and friends. Both of them teach, nurture, and watch out for the other in a variety of ways. Even more meaningful and increasingly important toward the end of the story is Tree-ear’s relationship with Min. At the beginning, our protagonist and antagonist have an owner/slave relationship that changes over time and blooms into a relationship of mutual respect.
The book is appropriate for late primary and intermediate elementary students. Though teacher can connect this book to many content areas, art and math are good areas to begin. In Art, students can use paper, colored pencils, oil pastels, paints, etc. to design their own vase with a unique flower or animal design on the front. In addition, they could use the design on paper to shape an actual vase using modeling clay. Teachers can establish a cross-connection to Math by finding possible answers to this question: How does size and shape affect volume? Students will measure their clay vase’s height and distance around the vase. Students will predict then experiment to determine which student’s vase has the most volume. This lesson would connect to the Common Core Standard:
CCSS.Math.Content.3.MD.A.2 Measure and estimate liquid volumes and masses of objects using standard units of grams (g), kilograms (kg), and liters (l).1 Add, subtract, multiply, or divide to solve one-step word problems involving masses or volumes that are given in the same units, e.g., by using drawings (such as a beaker with a measurement scale) to represent the problem.