Kim is sympathetic and believes in Min’s skill because he has seen the potter’s previous work. Min attempts to duplicate the result, but the heat in the kiln spoils his glazes so he has no good samples to show Emissary Kim. This technique has never been tried before. One of Min’s competitors has discovered a way to incise colored designs on pots. Soon, the village is abuzz with news that a royal emissary will be visiting the local potters to award a valuable palace commission to one of them. Weeks turn into months as Tree-ear learns many of the skills of glazing and firing clay but is still never allowed to shape a pot on a wheel. By law, Min is required to feed Tree-ear lunch, so Min’s kindly wife provides a meal each day for the boy, which he then shares in the evening with Crane-man. At the end of nine days, Tree-ear is no nearer his ambition of learning Min’s craft, but the old potter agrees to keep him on indefinitely as an assistant without pay.

Instead, the potter sends Tree-ear out into the forest to chop wood for the communal kiln where all the potters fire their creations. He secretly hopes that Min will teach him his trade. Tree-ear is fascinated to see a vase take shape on the potter’s wheel and longs to learn the art.Īfter accidentally breaking a nested box that Min made, the boy volunteers to work for the potter without pay for nine days. Tree-ear’s life takes an unexpected turn one day when he pauses to watch a master potter named Min at work in his yard. Despite their poverty, they have an optimistic attitude and a strong family bond. Tree-ear and Crane-man survive by foraging for food in the forest and scavenging scraps from the trash heaps of the village’s residents. For his part, Crane-man was born with a twisted foot and calf that require him to walk with a crutch and stand on one leg like a crane.

Tree-ear is named after a mushroom that grows on the trunks of trees without any parent seed-a fitting name for an orphan. A Single Shard won a Newbery Medal in 2002 and received an honorable mention for the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature in the same year.Īll page citations in this guide are based on the Kindle edition of the novel.Ī 12-year-old orphan named Tree-ear lives under a bridge with an old man named Crane-man. It describes a year in the life of Tree-ear, an adolescent in 12th-century Korea, whose dreams of becoming a master celadon potter lead him on a dangerous journey to the royal court in the city of Songdo. A Single Shard is intended for readers in grades 5 to 7, though the novel can be appreciated and enjoyed by adults as well.

A single shard book