Linda Sue Park

This was interesting, it was cool that the author wrote it all inspired by the Korean poetry form sijo. It makes me think how the act of writing poetry and the question posed in this book are similar. When you think about the one thing you’d save, you have to go through a mental catalog of stuff that’s important to you and narrow down what’s most important and why to choose just one thing. The process of writing poetry forms like this is similar, you have to mold what you want to say around the framework of the form and in doing so, you start with what’s important that you want to communicate and then pare it down to the most important words to get that idea across and fit your form and have the two things synchronize with each other.

This story also inevitably leads you to consider what would be the one thing you would take (after knowing your family and pets are safe of course) and why. It was interesting how some of the answers from the students were more practical things that they need and some were purely sentimental as I think those two sorts of things are the first that will come to mind. It seemed like there were a lot of similar answers, but maybe that’s because in reality we are all human and very similar things are important to us because of why they are important to us.… (més)

READING LEVEL: 6.6 AR POINTS: 6.0
(Ages 10-12, grades 5-7)

What a great way to introduce your child to historical fiction. The base of this little 152 page story regarding the value of the 12th century Korean celadon pottery is true. The artwork on the front cover of the book is a celadon prunus vase, with the inlaid crane, as talked about in the story and is Tree-ear’s, the main character, dream to one day make. The processes used throughout the story to make this pottery is also true. In fact, even with today’s precision in technology, the beautiful colors of the celadon pottery cannot be replicated from that time period. Have your child read the Author’s Note at the back of the book first, which will provide all the facts. This story has a lot of positive lessons on good morals, such as honesty, perseverance and selflessness, and what comes of hard work...lessons many kids definitely need today.

Tree-ear, now about 12 years old, had become an orphan at age 2 when his parents died. Crane-man, an old man now, born with a disabled bad leg and foot, had become an orphan many years earlier when his parents had died. He eventually was forced to sell his home for survival and ended up living under a bridge...not a usual Korean custom as their culture usually takes care of the unfortunates and poor. But, as fate would have it, these two would end up living together under the bridge where Crane-man would teach Tree-ear the value in honesty and hard work.

Tree-ear became fascinated with the making of pottery. He had a habit of spying on one master potter, Min, who was known at the time as one of the world’s best potters, although perhaps the pickiest and slowest because of his perfectionism. One day when Min wasn’t around, Tree-ear was caught inspecting Min’s pieces. Tree-ear was so startled that he dropped a piece and it broke. Min was irate, and believing him to be a robber, proceeded to beat him. Tree-ear offered his services to make up for the broken piece of pottery. He worked off his debt to Min for the following nine days by doing all the grunt work needed in preparing the clay. But, Tree-ear’s dream was to learn to make his own vase one day. It was this dream that kept him working for Min, who was anything but appreciative, for the next one and a half years without pay.

The rewards for Tree-ear’s honesty and perseverance pays off in the end in more ways than one. A very touching story!… (més)