King Matt The First
  • Published: 1 October 2015
  • ISBN: 9781784870539
  • Imprint: Vintage Children's Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 464
  • RRP: $29.99

King Matt The First

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EBook
31 Aug 2011
Paperback
1 Oct 2015
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'A masterpiece. We need King Matt now, in our world, more than ever' – Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are

‘Children! I, Matt the First, appeal for your help in carrying out my reforms’
Little Matt becomes King Matt when he is just a young boy. He can barely even read or write and he certainly doesn’t know anything about governing a country. What should he do? What would you do?

Ignoring his grown-up ministers, he builds the finest zoo in the world and decrees that children should be given chocolate every day. But ruling turns out to be a much trickier business than Matt ever realised.

Can the happiness of a nation depend on one small boy? Well, let’s find out…

Includes exclusive material: In the Backstory you can discover the life story of the brave author and put your governing skills to the test.

Vintage Children’s Classics is a twenty-first century classics list aimed at 8-12 year olds and the adults in their lives. Discover timeless favourites from The Jungle Book and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to modern classics such as The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
  • Published: 1 October 2015
  • ISBN: 9781784870539
  • Imprint: Vintage Children's Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 464
  • RRP: $29.99
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About the author

Janusz Korczak

Janusz Korczak was born in 1878 and died in 1942. He was a Polish physician and educator who wrote over twenty books - his fiction was in his time as well known as Peter Pan, and his non-fiction works bore passionate messages of child advocacy. During the Second World War, the Jewish orphanage he directed was relocated to the Warsaw ghetto. Although Korczak's celebrity afforded him many chances to escape, he refused to abandon the children. He was killed at Treblinka along with the children. His works have not been forgotten, especially by teachers: there are Janusz Korczak societies in over a dozen countries.

Praise for King Matt The First

Unforgettable to the last full stop. One of the great classics

Michael Morpurgo, Children's Laureate

Janusz Korczak is an important writer... His message is still relevant today, that children matter; indeed that they should be a priority in our culture, because it's only with a child's imagination that grown-ups can begin to conceive a better world

Yann Martel, author of 'Life of Pi'

Absolutely wonderful. A gripping and classic entertainment from start to shocking finish. Definitely a book for all ages

Matt Haig, author of 'The Last Family in England'

The spirit of Korczak, living on, could make a better world for all humans

Publisher's Weekly

Droll and melancholy, wry and touching, King Matt is a fable that offers a fierce, truthful picture of children struggling to make sense of grown-up nonsense... This small masterpiece is a rare tribute to the psychological depth and marvellous workings of a child's heart and mind

Maurice Sendak, author of 'Where the Wild Things Are'

For the world today, Janusz Korczak is a symbol of true religion and true morality

Pope John Paul II

A rediscovered kid's fantasy to enthral a new generation. Nearly seven decades before a kid named Harry pottered about with magic, Janusz Korczak's orphan boy King Matt the First captivated children all across Europe. Matt's message of hope shines past Korczak's tragic end in 1942 at a Nazi death camp with 200 Jewish orphans he refused to abandon

Parade

Matt is clearly an ancestor of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Little Prince

San Francisco Chronicle