“A Single Shard” by Linda Sue Park.
Clarion Books, New York, 2001, 180 pages, Grades 5-7.
Courage has many sides. People are considered courageous if they perform some kind of heroic act such as saving a person at an accident. At other times, courage is seen in performing commonplace actions in daily life. Examples of this would be a mother walking her daughter to school despite having been up all night with an ill child. It would be so much easier for this woman to simply lie down and sleep. But her maternal commitment leads her to sacrifice herself.
Frequently, there is another side to courage. That aspect is the virtue of hope. Linda Sue Park displays this in her Newbery-winning novel, “A Single Shard,” set in 12th century Korea. In this book, we see an orphan boy named Tree-ear living under a bridge with Crane-man, an elderly handicapped man. In their poverty, both will show the virtues of courage and hope.
As the story begins, Tree-ear is trying to rummage through garbage in their local village to find some food. Each day he takes his slim findings back to the bridge to share with Crane-man. There they eat their sparse meals together as they lovingly share their daily lives.
Good fortune finds Tree-ear. A local potter, Min, agrees to let him work at his pottery shop. Given hard work, Tree-ear works diligently at these difficult tasks. Tree-ear knows the trials of poverty and occasionally wants to take shortcuts. But Crane-man has schooled the youth in living an honest and honorable life.
As a result, no matter how trying the situations Tree-ear finds himself, he always acts with courage and honor. These fine traits build character in the boy. He studies how pottery is made and yearns to be a potter and use the pottery wheel. Sometimes, he even shapes flowers and animals with molding clay. After a period of time, he discovers that he can sense the shape he will make by merely touching the clay. He has a sense of beauty within himself.
At this time a royal commissioner arrives at the village to grant a commission to create pottery for the emperor. Min creates several intricate vases and sends Tree-ear to the royal palace to present them to the high commissioner. But on the way, Tree-ear is attacked and the pottery is broken. In despair, he holds one intricately embossed pottery shard. He has told Min that he would take the creations to the commissioner. He looks at the beautiful shard of pottery. Should he run away or take one shard of pottery to the palace?
Does Tree-ear continue his journey to the palace? Does he have the courage to stand in front of the royal commissioner with only a broke piece of pottery? Where do people find courage? Have you ever had to do something that seemed impossible? Where did you find the courage? To discover the answers to these and other questions, go to the library and check out this excellent novel, “A Single Shard,” by Linda Sue Park.
“A Single Shard” won the Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to children’s literature in 2002. It is a story of a young man learning that a lifetime of honorable choices will lead to courage and greatness of character. Though these decisions, Tree-ear discovers that hope is built on honesty. I hope you get a chance to read this fine book of a down-on-his-luck child bravely encountering life. Enjoy!
