A Single Shard

By: Linda Sue Park
Published by: Oxford University Press
Pages: 176
Ages: 9-12

Tree Ear is a young boy growing up in Korea, and he is facinating by this guy named Min, who makes beautiful pottery. One day he is trying to sneak a look at Min's pottery, and ends up breaking one. He starts working for Min to pay off the debt. He collects clay from the rivers. One day the emissary's assistant came to find someone to make pottery for the emissary. But none of Min's pottery turns out. So a few months later Tree Ear took a long journey to take Min's pottery to the emissary. He got robbed and the pottery was broken. So he took a single shard to the emissary, and they loved it and hired Min. :) But when Tree-ear returns home his guardian has died, and so Min and his wife take Tree Ear in and make them their son.

Who I would recommend this to? Kids interested in historical fiction.

Possible problems/conflicts? Tree ear comes from a homeless situation, this might be a problem for kid's to read.

My reaction: I didn't really care for this book, I thought it was boring, and slow. 2 stars **