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A review by joy761
King Matt the First by Janusz Korczak
2.0
I’m not even sure how to begin reviewing this book. King Matt the First is translated from Polish and published first in 1923. Obviously there are some cultural differences in time and place and maybe exactly how a novel should unfold by today’s standards.
The story follows young Matt, who’s orphaned and heir to the throne of his kingdom. I could never even be sure if I liked him or not, but he did seem to be doing his best to defend his people and to become king of the children. The novel involves his adventures fighting in a WWI style trench war, traveling to Africa, and doing his best to rule his kingdom in peace.
I appreciated the foreword giving some context on the author, a Polish doctor who ran orphanages by a children’s parliament and set up the first national children’s newspaper. From the book, I can glean he cared very much for the rights of children, at a time when that perhaps wasn’t a concept the world concerned itself with. It also seemed a little revolutionary that he was championing gender equality (King Matt says the girls “of course” would be allowed to have delegates in the children’s parliament) And though the colonial, racist ideas were hard to read in regards to Matt and the “savage” and “ignorant” Africans, I could still tell the author felt everyone in the world deserved fair treatment. I was moved to tears by the true story of the author, in 1942, marching with the green children’s flag, like the one King Matt created in the book, with two hundred children to board the train to Treblinka where he and those children would die in a gas chamber, refusing to abandon his charges.
But the poignancy of the author’s real life bravery and care of children isn’t enough to make up for the book. I could forgive the offensive references to Africans, the children drinking vodka and smoking, and the inappropriate violence in a children’s book. (Ex: Matt killing someone with a shot that shattered their skull) But for this review, what’s hard to forgive is the boring way the story unspooled from one event to the next in a jerky and abrupt fashion.
Speaking of abrupt, the ending.
Wut?
I read this as a school librarian because it’s been assigned as a Battle of the Books choice. For the life of me, I can’t understand why. It’s no longer a book for children, but does offer moments of fascinating reading in trying to decipher the views of children’s rights in another time. Who knows, maybe it takes time to process some of the messages in this book. And I did find the consequences of attacks on truth and use of propaganda as relevant as ever!
The story follows young Matt, who’s orphaned and heir to the throne of his kingdom. I could never even be sure if I liked him or not, but he did seem to be doing his best to defend his people and to become king of the children. The novel involves his adventures fighting in a WWI style trench war, traveling to Africa, and doing his best to rule his kingdom in peace.
I appreciated the foreword giving some context on the author, a Polish doctor who ran orphanages by a children’s parliament and set up the first national children’s newspaper. From the book, I can glean he cared very much for the rights of children, at a time when that perhaps wasn’t a concept the world concerned itself with. It also seemed a little revolutionary that he was championing gender equality (King Matt says the girls “of course” would be allowed to have delegates in the children’s parliament) And though the colonial, racist ideas were hard to read in regards to Matt and the “savage” and “ignorant” Africans, I could still tell the author felt everyone in the world deserved fair treatment. I was moved to tears by the true story of the author, in 1942, marching with the green children’s flag, like the one King Matt created in the book, with two hundred children to board the train to Treblinka where he and those children would die in a gas chamber, refusing to abandon his charges.
But the poignancy of the author’s real life bravery and care of children isn’t enough to make up for the book. I could forgive the offensive references to Africans, the children drinking vodka and smoking, and the inappropriate violence in a children’s book. (Ex: Matt killing someone with a shot that shattered their skull) But for this review, what’s hard to forgive is the boring way the story unspooled from one event to the next in a jerky and abrupt fashion.
Speaking of abrupt, the ending.
Wut?
I read this as a school librarian because it’s been assigned as a Battle of the Books choice. For the life of me, I can’t understand why. It’s no longer a book for children, but does offer moments of fascinating reading in trying to decipher the views of children’s rights in another time. Who knows, maybe it takes time to process some of the messages in this book. And I did find the consequences of attacks on truth and use of propaganda as relevant as ever!