“The novel has the deceptive simplicity of a folk-tale; readers accustomed to the frenetic pace and fickle relationships of much contemporary YA fiction will find themselves in a very different narrative world.” BfK 5-star review
“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. A timeless jewel.” KIRKUS
“A moving tribute to perseverance and creativity in this finely etched novel set in mid- to late 12th-century Korea.” Publishers Weekly
20th anniversary edition celebrating the 2002 winner of the Newbery Medal.
13-year-old Tree-ear lives in a Korean village famous for its ceramics. He doesn’t have much but he loves to watch master potter Min at work and dreams of learning the craft one day.
Reluctantly Min agrees to let Tree-ear help him. Determined to do whatever it takes to prove himself, Tree-ear embarks on a dangerous journey to present his master’s work to the king, unaware it will change his life forever.