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 Park,
Linda Sue. 2001. A Single Shard. Clairon Books. ISBN 0395978270.
Tree-ear is a teenage orphan who has been raised by Crane-man,
a homeless man who lives under a bridge. Everyday the pair clean up
their meager possessions, cook what food they can find, and keep each
other company through storytelling and jokes. As Tree-ear grows older,
he finds he is no longer content with his life under the bridge. Soon
he begins sneaking off to the yard of Min, the master potter, and
spies on him while he works. One day Tree-ear ventures too closely
and accidentally breaks one of Min’s pieces. When the angry
potter discovers the damage, Tree-ear volunteers to work for him to
repay his debt.
So begins the training. Each day Min roughly orders the orphan to
complete the most menial work so the master potter is free to complete
his orders. Tree-ear learns all the routines of a potter’s life.
Even after his debt is paid Tree-ear convinces Min to let him work
as his assistant, even though Min will not train him to be his successor,
since potters only pass their trade down to their sons. Still, he
hopes that one day he will be able to create a pot of his own.
When the royal emissary arrives in the village to judge all the potters’
work and appoint a commission to work for the court, Min and the other
potters display their finest achievements. Min’s chief rival,
a potter named Kang, has mysteriously mastered the difficult art of
inlay work and Min must complete a similar design to win the royal
commission. After months of work, Min produces two exquisite vases.
However, he is too old to carry them to the capital city. Tree-ear
volunteers for the dangerous journey, still hoping to win Min’s
approval and somehow become a master potter himself. When disaster
strikes, all Min’s and Tree-ear’s dreams rest on a small
piece of pottery. This Newberry winner is a slow starter, but a wonderful
look at a little shard of history.
 Paulsen,
Gary. 1998. Soldier’s Heart. Delacorte Press. ISBN 0385324987.
Charley Goddard knows that a shooting war comes just once in
a lifetime, they are all saying it, and he also knows that even though
he’s only fifteen, he is determined to be a part of the fighting.
His mother lets him go, reluctantly, because ever since his father
died, she’s had a soft spot for letting Charley have his way.
So off he goes for training after lying successfully about his age.
It begins to look like they might not see any fighting after all,
just the innumerable drills that try to help train him as a soldier.
But there is not a lot of ammunition to practice with, and the guns
are not as good as what Charley left back at home. Finally word comes
that they are moving out and are going to see battle against those
Johnny Rebs that had the audacity to try and secede from the United
States. Charley sees his first battle at Bull Run. And the shock and
horror of the massacre that occurs there will change him forever.
It seems unreal to him and he is physically ill with the results of
the battle. The details in this book are vivid and paint a disturbing
picture of the conditions the men endured during the Civil War. We
follow Charley through four major battles of the war, and he does
not escape unscathed in mind or body. This book by Newberry Honored
Paulsen is heart wrenching and eye opening in its well-researched
historical detail.
 Curtis,
Christopher Paul. 1999. Bud, Not Buddy. Delacorte Press.
ISBN 0385323069
The year is 1936, in Flint, Michigan during the Great Depression.
Times have been hard for ten year old Bud whose mother died when he
was six years old. Bud decided to run away from a bad foster home
he was living in and set out in search of his father – the renowned
band leader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids. Even though Bud is motherless
and on the run, he has a few things going for him. He has his own
suitcase filled with his own important secret things. His mom never
told him who his father was, but she left a clue: flyers of Herman
E. Calloway and his famous band, The Dusky Devastators of the Depression!
His “Bud Caldwell’s Rules and Things for Having a Funner
Life” that he writes gives him his own set of rules to live
by. For instance, foster homes made Bud develop a real distrust in
things adults told him, like the time an adult told him she needed
his help. Bud’s Rule # 87 states “When an adult tells
you they need your help with a problem, get ready to be tricked.”
Bud’s Rule # 83 also states “If an adult tells you not
to worry, and you weren’t worried before, you better hurry up
and start, cause you’re already running late.” This Newberry
winner is an excellent picture of life in the Great Depression, especially
for a black orphan, and a page turner that will have you laughing
and with a lump in your throat by turns.
 Stanley,
Diane. 2002. Saladin: Noble Prince of Islam. HarperCollins
Publishers. ISBN 0688171362.
The illustrations in this only slightly fictionalized biography are
gorgeous, and provided a wonderful story from the Arabic point of
view of the Crusades. A pleasant and interesting read, this book is
an excellent elementary or middle school biography on Saladin. This
book could be used in a classroom to start to explain why Arabic countries
are so hostile now to Europeans and other Christians. Before the Crusades,
Islamic followers viewed Christians in a totally different light than
they did after all the war and bloodshed caused in these futile wars.
It was also enlightening to see Richard the Lionhearted in a different
light other than the romanticized version of him popular in the Robin
Hood myth. For instance, the heavy taxation of the English people
was first done by Richard himself, to raise funds for his crusade,
and then, by his brother to pay the ransom on King Richard when he
was captured by an enemy on his way back from the unsuccessful Crusade.
The military tactics discussed are detailed and engaging, with the
illustrations helping to make occasional points clear. Saladin was
a truly noble and honorable leader, who always kept his word, even
when it was not to his advantage at all. He was kind to women, children,
and the elderly and in spite of the fact that he could have been quite
wealthy, he lived so modestly and gave so generously, that when he
died, he didn't even have enough money left to pay for his own burial.
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