Dear Mrs. Zrihen,
I have just finished reading the book "The Single Shard" by on of the most outstanding authors Linda Sue Park. The main reason I picked this passage was because it was the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children like me. The significant of this passage was it started out as a poor kid living under a bridge to that little 12 year old working with a potter then named by the potters dead son (Hung-Up). There were 6 reading strategies I used to read this book. I did 2 things before I read this book. First, I read the synopsis at the back of the book to get a hang of what I am going to be reading. Second, I looked at the picture and noticed the award it got for its ratings. There are 2 things I did while reading this book. First, I imagined everything I was reading in my mind. Second, I stopped at every chapter and thought about what I have read so far in that chapter. There are two things I did after reading this book. First, I put the book down and thought the whole book threw to see if I remember everything. Second, I looked for a full summary to check if I missed anything in the book and to get the information to anything I misunderstood.
This book is fiction- historical fiction. There are no characteristics that it is fiction except that it is not true but can happen. There are four main characters in this story. The first one is tree ear and he is a very nice boy that always helps is old friend crane man. Tree ear is not selfish at all and always make sure that crane man gets something to eat. The second character in this story is crane man who lives with tree ear. Crane man is an old guy that is able to make sandals for tree ear every time he needs. The third character is Min, who ends up teaching tree ear how to make pots out of clay. Min is a very angry man that is mad because his son died when he was at a very young age. The fourth character is Amija, mins wife and the one that always gives good care to tree ear. Ajima is a very nice old lady that loves tree ear so much and feeds him every time for lunch and sometimes supper. The protagonists are all of the 4 characters who were just mentioned. There is no antagonist in this story. The foils in this story are the guards. This story took place in Ch’ulp’o, Korea. The time was around the 12th century with summer weather conditions the winter weather condition. (Exposition) Tree ear was a poor orphan that lives under a bridge with is friend crane man who is very old. (Rising action) Everyday he watches a potter make pots and one time he came in without the potter knowing and dropped a pot. The potter who’s name was Min got extremely mad at him and made tree ear work for him for 9 straight days. (Climax) There was another master potter named Kang and want to show the royals his pot as did Min. (falling action) Tree ear goes to mins house and finds the pot that Min has been working on smashed in pieces on the ground. Tree ear at first thought that it was Min who smashed it in frustration but they found out that it was a robber. Mins wife then comes in and tells tree ear to get more clay for Min. The royals come in and says that they want to see mins pot where tree ear was only able to show him a single shard of the smashed pot. Tree ear was very curious as to which pot he would pick and he had picked tree ears saying that he picked the single shard because of the resources used to it and that he had seen Min doing a lot of pots and deserves it. Min got a commission for the royals for 1 and half years. (Resolution) although with all of the happiness tree ear was very unsatisfied hearing that crane man has died from a hard attack, which meant tree ear had to live with Min and his wife. Since tree ear was to live with Min and his wife Amija asked tree for one favor and that favor was to be able to call tree ear Hyung-Gu the name of Min and Amija’s son. Therefore tree ear gladly accepted. The main conflict is internal, man vs. self. The tone of this story is that the author thinks that at the end of the story tree ear didn’t hear what he want to hear at the end of the story when he was told that crane man died. The mood of the story is the tree ear got his favorite dream come true but lost one of his best friends, which makes the reader both sad and happy. The theme of this book is that with one piece you can prove so much. The moral of this story is something will happen when you do not expect it like when tree ear never expected to learn how to make a pot, he learned from master Min. The point of view in this story is first person. The author’s purpose in writing this book is to entertain people about how it was like in the 12th century. The figurative languages in this book are topic, sub-topic, italics, bolded words, and pictures.
This book was awarded for a great reason. A good reason it was awarded was because it’s setting was about 8 centuries ago. Historical fiction is on of my favorite sub genres only because it is about what happened a long time ago. Linda Sue Park is an amazing author and I plan on reading more of her books.
If I were to rate this book on what I personally think of it I would give it a 10 of 10. The reason I would give it a rate of 10 of 10 is because as I said it is historical fiction, which is my favorite sub-genre.
Sincerely,
Ofek Peer
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