Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2004
“First published in Polish in 1923 as Krâol Maciuâs Pierwszy.”
330 pages
Ages 11-17 years

And so every child is to be given two balls to play with in the summer and skis for the winter.  Every day after school, all children are to be given a piece of candy and a nice piece of cake.  Each year, the girls will be given dolls, and the boys will get jackknives.  Every school should have a seesaw and a merry-go-round.  Also, pretty color pictures are to be added to all school books.

Young Matt knew that his father, the king, was seriously ill and if he didn’t get better in three days, it would be bad.  He knew this because the doctor had told them all, “The king is seriously ill and it’ll be bad if he doesn’t get better in three days.”  As happenstance would have it, the king did not get better in three days, and Matt found himself in a very unlikely, but perhaps somewhat enviable, position.  He was now a King, a very young King.  The Prime Minister promptly called a meeting of all of the other ministers, and they sat in very comfy chairs in the great hall where they discussed at length what should be done.  They couldn’t, of course, allow a child to run the country, but what could they do?  King Matt was now undoubtedly and irreversibly king! 

And so begins the story of King Matt the First, otherwise known as King Matt the Reformer.  He wanted nothing more than to make his kingdom happy, yet secretly fought in the very war that was raging only because he had been made king.  King Matt returned from war and realized it was his destiny to see that all the children in the country received blissful summer vacations in the forests and at the sea, beautiful toys and chocolate once a week, zoos and playgrounds, and due compensation for the hard work they put in at school everyday!  Here was a king willing to visit and befriend savage cannibals in order to procure exotic animals for his zoo.  Here, at last, was a king who realized that children should be given gifts and granted privileges and that their wishes should be heard and fulfilled at all costs!  Here, at last, was a king who knew how to listen to the children and find out what it was they really needed, who read their letters and talked to them and related to them.  Of course, here was also a king who, after signing a reform, nearly toppled his entire kingdom and started a great world war by reversing the order of things and demanding that adults go to school all day and children be given jobs and the authority to tell their parents and their teachers, “No!  We won’t do that!” without fear of punishment.  But that is neither here nor there.  What King Matt truly accomplishes is growing up and becoming a good and just king who seeks the very best for his kingdom and ultimately becoming, by so often learning the hard way, King Matt the Reformer. 

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