BookTalksIST 612
Rebecca Buerkett
A Single Shard – Linda Sue Park
Prop: Photo of pottery – there are only two places in the world where this particular style of
celadon pottery was made, and one was Korea during the 12th century. Tree-Ear, an orphaned
homeless boy from a small Korean village at that time, doesn’t want for as much as you’d think.
He has a safe, dry place to stay under a bridge and a beloved ex-monk for a guardian. But
everything changes on the day he surreptitiously watches a skilled local potter creating pots with
the celadon glaze for which potters in his village are renowned. Tree-ear is fascinated, and he
soon becomes an apprentice to the potter. Tree-Ear longs to learn the skill of throwing pots, but
because a potter’s skills and trade secrets can only be passed on to a son, Tree-Ear remains the
lowliest of apprentices, hauling wood and cutting clay from the river. When a royal emissary
comes to the village in search of pottery worthy of a royal commission, Tree-Ear’s master begins
a frenzy of activity to create masterpieces worthy of the royal emperor. Tree-Ear is eager to help,
but something goes horribly wrong. What can Tree-Ear do to help his master win the royal
commission? Will that be enough to earn the potter’s respect? Will Tree-Ear ever realize his
dream of becoming a potter himself? A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park won the Newberry
Medal in 2002.
Another couple of centuries and a continent away, we have The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen
Cushman, winner of the 1996 Newberry Medal.
Read first couple of sentences.
Now, this particular orphan is no idiot. She knows that she can either smell bad or live. She
chooses to live, and what’s more, when the village Midwife appears, pulls her out of the dung
heap, and offers her a job as her apprentice, she chooses that over living in the dung heap.
Unfortunately, the name Beetle (aka dungbeetle) given to her by the Midwife, sticks with her.
But Beetle’s sharp wits are to her advantage as she begins working for the grumpy midwife,
whose apparent biggest source of entertainment is berating Beetle. Despite a lifetime of toil and
belittlement, Beetle doesn’t realize that her daily duties and observations have lead to a certain
amount of knowledge about midwifery. But will that be enough help when Beetle finds herself in
the position of having to deliver a baby alone? Find out when you read The Midwife’s
Apprentice by Karen Cushman.
Fast forward to the Great Depression era, to Mexico for Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan,
an ALA Most Notable Book from 2001.
On the morning of her birthday, Esperanza’s father always wakes her by singing Las Mananitas
outside her window, and Esperanza blows him kisses from her balcony. [play song]. But on her
thirteenth birthday there is no birthday song. Her father, a large landowner in Mexico, is killed
by bandits the day before the celebration, and Esperanza and her mother must leave everything
behind, including Esperanza’s abuelita, to flee Mexico for America. Esperanza’s mother
becomes an itinerant farm worker in California. Can you imagine how hard it would be to leave
behind a large estate, fancy dresses, servants, parties, to live on a dusty farm in a strange land,
working at manual labor all day in the hot sun? When Esperanza arrives in America, she does not
even know how to sweep a floor or cook any food for herself. Soon, her mother becomes ill and
her circumstances become more desperate. Esperanza is faced with the responsibility of working
to provide for her family and raise money for her grandmother to join them in America. Will
Esperanza rise above this fate? Will she learn to ever be happy again? Read Esperanza Rising by
Pam Munoz Ryan.