His chief competitor is an inferior artist who, however, has developed an innovative technique of inlay work, using different colors of glaze to create interersting surface details. Min’s hopes are pinned to a few samples of his work, because he is careful and exacting and achieves excellence slowly. Then a royal emissary comes to town, looking for a potter deserving of a government commission. Without ever being allowed to throw a pot himself, Tree-ear learns what he can about working the clay, appreciating graceful proportions, incising designs, and glazing pottery with the region’s rare and highly-prized celadon green. The backbreaking labor includes chopping and hauling cartloads of wood to burn in the kiln, cutting clay out of the ground, and draining it over and over until it is silky smooth. When Tree-ear breaks a piece of pottery, he begs to be allowed to pay for it by working for Min. Young Tree-ear pauses from scrounging food from other people’s garbage to watch the master potter Min throw a lump of clay on his wheel and shape it into a graceful urn. The 2002 winner of the Newbery Medal takes us back to medieval Korea, where a crippled man and an orphaned boy live together under a bridge in the potters’ village of Ch’ulp’o. Tree-ear's story conveys a time and place far away and long ago, but with a simplicity and immediacy that is both graceful and unpretentious.Purchase here Important details of the times are folded into the narrative without being obtrusive. Intrigues, danger, and the same strong focus on doing what is right turn a simple story into a compelling read. Obtaining a royal commission to make pots worthy of the palace is at the heart of the plot.

Each choice of Tree-ear's shows an awareness of pride and dignity-not just for himself, but for Crane-man, Min, and his wife. Ethical decisions regarding acceptance of lunch and his responsibility to Crane-man are decided with fastidiousness and rectitude. It is in the details that the story lays claim to a sort of Zen quality.

Min allows him to continue to help in exchange for food from the master's kind wife. Tree-ear aches and bleeds, but gradually he becomes accustomed to the work. Surprised in the act, one of the pots is broken and Tree-ear must work to pay for the damage. Tree-ear has been living with Crane-man under a bridge, scavenging for food and comfort until one day he watches Min, the potter, becoming so fascinated he later creeps back to look at the finished pots. A homeless boy in a 12th-century Korean village makes himself surprisingly useful to a master potter.

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