A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
Winner, 2002 Newbery Award
Quick Summary
A thirteen-year-old orphan named Tree-ear assists an accomplished potter in medieval Korea.
Favorite Quote
If a man is keeping an idea to himself, and that idea is taken by stealth or trickery—I say it is stealing. But once a man has revealed his idea to others, it is no longer his alone. It belongs to the world.
About the Author
Linda Sue Park lives in New York City. She graduated with a degree in English from Stanford University before taking a job as a public relations writer for a major oil company. She wrote her first book for children in 1997.
My Project
I used paper clay to create the irregular pottery shard. This was my first experience with paper clay. It's much wetter and a
little rougher than polymer. It doesn't seem to hold carved patterns the same way (I'm guessing artists must carve it after it dries), but I did like that the clay air dries. I added some flower patterns and painted it a green color to capture the special celadon shade that the region was known for. (I don't feel that I've achieved that, though the green does look less bright in person. I definitely shared the frustration of the artists in the book trying to achieve a precise shade!) I placed the shard on a woven background to symbolize the woven package that holds the pottery before it breaks and added a paper cut-out for the year. Take a look at the Thousand Cranes Vase to see what the pottery of the time actually looked like. It's amazing!
Final Thoughts
This book makes you realize how lucky you are to be an artist living in this time period. The potters in this book needed to dig clay out of the ground, refine it, cut down wood to heat the kiln, and make their own glaze with precise proportions of clay, ash and water. After all that, they were then beset by problems with irregular firing that meant that they might have to make a dozen vases in order to get one good one. I appreciated the author's note at the end which explained some of the basis of history for parts of the book—like the fact that the main character's journey took him through Seoul but that was not a major city at the time. I'd recommend this book to anyone currently practicing pottery or another creative art. It has an interesting perspective on copying and uniqueness that will resonate with (or challenge!) artists today.
Your Turn
Readers: If you read this book, I'd love to hear what you think in the comments.
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