It is the first instance of his learning that he has reason to believe he possesses capacities within himself he did not know or imagine.
“When you first came and I began making those marks, you were in perhaps your second year-already on two legs and able to talk.”Īnd so, less than five pages into the story, Tree-ear learns that he is actually more advanced than he thought. “No, you have more than ten years,” he said. There was a mark for each finger of both hands-ten marks in all.Ĭrane-man answered before Tree-ear asked. Tree-ear looked again, this time with keen interest. “I kept count of your years, for I thought the time would come when you would like to know how old you are.” Interestingly, however, one of the first things that the protagonist learns is that he is actually older than he has been led to believe: It is, in fact, set in a time and place that is about as far from the experiences of modern kids as know history allows: a small Korean village during the 12th century. Unlike many works of fiction that win awards specifically for writing for kids, A Single Shard does not take place in a completely imagined world nor does it feature characters the same approximate age as its readers experiencing events in the modern world to which they can relate. Words like felicitous, concubines, connoisseur, lugubrious, and ministration don’t seem exactly suitable for the average eleven-year-old.Īnd then there is the actual storyline. Much of the vocabulary used in the text, however, seems to strong hint that if his level is appropriate then it is book more likely to be used in advanced level English classes. Most study guides to be used in teaching the book are furthermore narrowed to students in the high elementary to lower middle school grades, suggesting that the targeted readership for the book is somewhere in the tweens and very low teens. Anyone familiar with that particular literary award will instantly realize that this makes a book written for a young audience.
Linda Sue Park’s A Single Shard was published in 2001 and thereupon proceeded to be awarded the prestigious Newberry Medal for excellence the following year.
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