King Matt the First facts for kids
1986 US edition
|
|
| Author | Janusz Korczak |
|---|---|
| Original title | Król Maciuś Pierwszy |
| Translator | Richard Lourie |
| Cover artist | Brian Selznick (2004 US English edition) |
| Country | Poland |
| Language | Polish |
| Genre | Children's novel |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
|
Publication date
|
1922 |
|
Published in English
|
1 January 1986 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, paperback) |
| Pages | 330 (2004 paperback edition) |
| ISBN | 0-374-34139-7 (1st US edition) |
| Followed by | King Matt on the Desert Island |
King Matt the First (Polish: Król Maciuś Pierwszy) is a children's novel by Polish author, physician, and child pedagogue Janusz Korczak. In addition to telling the story of a young king's adventures, it describes many social reforms, particularly targeting children, some of which Korczak enacted in his own orphanage, and is a thinly veiled allegory of contemporary and historical events in Poland. The book has been described as being as popular in Poland as Peter Pan was in the English-speaking world. It was the first of Korczak's novels to be translated into English – several of his pedagogical works have been translated, and more recently his novel Kaytek the Wizard was also published in English.
Contents
Plot
Matt is a child prince who is catapulted to the throne by the sudden death of his father.
At the beginning of his reign, Matt enacts several bold reforms aimed at improving life for the people of his kingdom, especially the children, but in spite of his best intentions, reality gets in the way producing many unintended consequences from silly to sinister.
Matt tries to read and answer all his mail by himself and finds that the volume is too much and he needs to rely on secretaries. He is exasperated with his ministers and has them arrested, but soon realizes that he does not know enough to govern by himself, and is forced to release the ministers and institute constitutional monarchy.
When a war breaks out, Matt cannot accept being shut up in his palace, but slips away and joins up, pretending to be a peasant boy - and narrowly avoids becoming a prisoner of war. He takes the offer of a friendly journalist to publish for him a "royal paper" -and finds much later that he gets carefully edited news and that the journalist is covering up the gross corruption of the young king's best friend. Matt tries to organize the children of the entire world to hold processions and demand their rights - and ends up antagonizing other kings. He falls in love with a black African princess. Finally, he is overthrown by the invasion of three foreign armies and exiled to a desert island.
Sequel
The story is continued in the sequel, King Matt on a Desert Island (Król Maciuś na wyspie bezludnej), published in the same year and translated into English in 1990. The sequel tells of Matt's personal development in isolation, followed by his eventual return and reestablishment of democracy in his homeland.
Major themes
Korczak often employed the form of the fairy tale in order to prepare his young readers for the dilemmas and difficulties of adult life, and the need to make responsible decisions.
Images for kids
-
2004 US edition
-
2000s cartoon series adaptation
