Janusz Korczak · a Polish children’s classic · 1922
King Matt the First
A little boy becomes king. He goes to war as an ordinary soldier, locks his ministers up, travels to the land of the cannibals and builds a parliament for children. Then he learns how hard it really is to rule.
From the palace doors to the front line, the desert and a children’s parliament — twelve scenes from Korczak’s novel. No spoilers for the ending. Click any picture to see it full size.
1
Chapter 1
The Little Heir
The old king is dying. Behind the door the ministers argue about the throne — and little Matt, in his nightshirt, listens and understands that from tomorrow everything will change.
9
Chapter 9
A King in the Trenches
Matt slips out of the palace and goes to war with Felek as an ordinary soldier. In the trenches, by lantern light, he finally understands why the ministers kept talking about boots and oats.
14
Chapter 14
“I Arrest You All”
After the war the ministers only complain: no money, broken railway cars. Matt has had enough. “I arrest you all!” — and for the first time he truly rules on his own.
17
Chapter 17
Visiting the Foreign Kings
An invitation from the foreign kings: a royal train, a parade, a banquet and fireworks. Matt takes in the splendour and begins to see that not every king is his friend.
19
Chapter 19
At the Seaside
A seaside holiday with the Old Doctor: sandcastles, waves and the first big ideas for reforms — for every child in the kingdom.
21
Chapter 21
Off to the Land of the Cannibals
A camel caravan sets off across the desert. Matt travels deep into Africa, to King Bum-Drum’s land — where no white king has ever dared to go.
23
Chapter 23
The Trial by Fire
A friendship ceremony among the cannibals: snakes, a pool of crocodiles and a leap through fire. Matt passes every test — and meets brave Klu-Klu.
27
Chapter 27
A Parliament for Children
Matt builds two parliaments: one for grown-ups, one for children. In the second the door handles are lower, the chairs are short and the windows let the little deputies see the street.
30
Chapter 30
They Were Lost!
The aeroplane dips low over an oasis — and arrows fly up from below. The pilot opens the throttle: “This may be the last flight of my life.”
32
Chapter 32
The Snowball Battle
Winter in the capital and an enormous snowball fight. For a moment the king is just a boy again — before the ministers call yet another council.
40
Chapter 40
Storm in the Children’s Parliament
The children’s parliament ends in chaos: shouting, quarrels and Klu-Klu leaping across the hall. Governing children is no easier than governing adults.
50
Chapter 50
The White Flags
War returns. From a hilltop Matt looks at the capital through his binoculars — and cannot believe his eyes: white flags are flying from the towers.
🔒Finale only in the audiobookWe won’t spoil it.
53
Chapter 53 · finale
The Deserted Island
Betrayal, a trial and a verdict. How the reign of the world’s youngest king ends — you’ll hear for yourself. And then there’s the sequel.
A nine-year-old boy becomes king — war, a children's parliament, a desert island. Korczak's beloved novel about idealism, power, and growing up too fast.
🔊 In the audiobook the young king keeps his original Polish name — Maciuś, pronounced MAH-choosh.
Voice: licensed AI narration (ElevenLabs), no cloning of real narrators — labelled in line with the EU AI Act. Play the sample and judge for yourself.
Two editions · one story
The whole book — or piece by piece
The English audiobook of King Matt the First is published in two editions: the complete audiobook (10 h 8 min, 53 chapters) and a serial in 10 parts. Each part is a self-contained slice of the story that you buy, read and listen to separately — a pocket-money way to start, and you own every part forever.
📚 10 parts — about an hour each, perfect bedtime portions
💰 Lower entry price — start with Part 1, continue whenever you're ready
🎧 Buy, read & listen per part — every part plays in the app like a full book
👑 Want it all at once? The complete edition is a single purchase
A nine-year-old king, his ally from the park, the doctor, ministers who have no idea how to govern a child — and a girl from Africa who can do everything he can't.
Main character · 9 years old · king of the realm
Matt
A nine-year-old boy who loses his father and becomes king within three days.
He still plays with tin soldiers, yet already has to receive foreign
ambassadors — in a stiff little uniform, his hand offered exactly
the way his tutor taught him.
Stubborn, curious about the world, fair to a fault — and lonely in
a way no other child on earth knows. "I'll pay them back," he whispers
at his dying father's bed, hearing the ministers raise a toast to his
health with glasses of wine.
Child-kingReformerHonourLonelinessJustice
Felek
Best mate · about 10
Son of a palace guard — the first boy Matt meets outside the palace.
With Felek he runs away to war, with Felek he climbs the fence of the
royal park, with Felek he learns what the world of ordinary children
looks like.
First friend
Old Doctor
Physician · counsellor · 60+
The same doctor who treated Matt as a baby and who holds him on his
knee at his dying father's bed. Quiet, wise, promising nothing —
the only adult in the palace Matt truly trusts.
A self-portrait of Korczak himself.
Ally
Prime Minister
Head of government · 55+
The head of government with a little bell on his desk and
a red-and-blue pencil. He writes with the blue end: "very well,
let there be war", pretending the foreign ambassador's threat doesn't
concern him. Cares more about good wine than about a nine-year-old king.
Corridors of power
War Minister
Military man · 50+
A general in uniform, terrified that nobody will fear a child-king.
"Matt cannot even write yet," he says reproachfully. Later it is he who
leads the army into the war in which Matt escapes the palace to fight
as the common soldier Tomek.
War
Irenka
First love · 9–10
The fire-brigade captain's daughter, met in the garden, to whom Matt writes letters from
the war — and never sends them. The first girl who makes the king
forget how to speak — and who understands him better than all the
ministers put together.
Letters from the war
The Tutor
Foreigner · stiff manners
A strict tutor sent from abroad to "shape" Matt into a king.
He teaches the courtly bow, the French greeting and protocol —
everything you have to forget if you want to really talk
with Felek in the courtyard.
Etiquette
Foreign King
Neighbour · 45+
One of the three rulers who declare war on Matt when they hear
a child has taken the throne. Confident, dismissive — until the
moment the little king literally escapes his own palace and wins
the first battle.
Adversary
Sad King
Ally · 50+
The ruler of a neighbouring country who lost his wife and child —
and the only one who understands what loneliness on a throne means.
He gives Matt his first real adult-to-adult conversation.
After the war he becomes his closest ally.
Empathy
Klu-Klu
Princess from Africa · 10
Daughter of King Bum-Drum, the bravest girl in the book. She shoots
a bow, speaks four languages, learns to read and write in two weeks.
Brought to Europe by Matt — she shows that a child can do everything
adults don't even try.
Smartest in the palace
Bum-Drum
King in Africa · Klu-Klu's father
Ruler of an African kingdom, whom Matt sets out to meet in person —
travelling by caravan. Korczak overturns every stereotype
of his era here: Bum-Drum is dignified, just, and sharper than many
a European minister.
Distant ally
Lady in White
Mysterious figure
She appears to Matt in his hardest moments — quiet, kind, nameless.
A memory of his mother? The imagination of a lonely boy?
Korczak leaves that to the reader. The only person Matt is not
ashamed to cry in front of.
Memory of a mother
From the palace to the island
A short biography of a king aged 9
Fifty-three chapters in which a boy becomes a king, a soldier, a reformer — and, in the end, a prisoner.
Ch. 1
The father's death · the crown
Ministers in the council hall, door-handles too high, the father's bed.
Matt receives the crown and a whisper in his head: "I'll pay them back."
Ch. 5–8
Three wars
Three foreign kings declare war when they hear a child has taken the
throne. Matt escapes the palace and fights as the common soldier Tomek.
Ch. 15–18
Felek and the letters to Irenka
In the trenches Matt gets to know Felek. He writes Irenka letters
he never sends. He returns to the palace with a new friend.
Ch. 22–28
Matt's reforms
Matt builds a children's parliament, gives every child the right to
sweets and chocolate, brings Klu-Klu from Africa. The ministers laugh.
The treasury weeps.
Ch. 35–45
The second war · defeat
Not the sad king but someone else declares war. Matt loses.
The state falls. The reforms are undone.
Ch. 50–53
The desert island
Matt is exiled. Korczak (1922) leaves the reader with the question:
did a nine-year-old reformer ever stand a chance?
A palace game
Match Matt's courtiers
Flip the cards and find the pairs. The fewer the moves, the better a vizier you are.
🃏 Moves: 0✅ Pairs: 0 / 6⏱️ Time: 0:00
🏆
The crown is yours!
You recognised the court in 0 moves!
Time: 0:00
From the audiobook
Chapter one
In our English audiobook the little king keeps his original Polish name — Maciuś (say: MAH-choosh).
"And this is how it was…"
The ministers locked the door so that no one would disturb them;
they lit the electric lamps — and said nothing. For it is not easy
to say what should be done when the King is dying and his son is
only nine years old — and cannot even write yet.
At last the Minister of Justice spoke:
"By law, after the death of the King, his oldest son ascends the
throne. And the King has only one son — little Maciuś. So Maciuś
must become king."
The Minister of War all but wrung his hands:
"Maciuś cannot even write yet. Who will be afraid of such a king?"
And then the door swung open — for when they had sent for the doctor,
they had forgotten to lock it again. In walked a foreign ambassador,
in a high stiff collar, an even higher hat in his hand, and said:
"I come in the name of my king, and I demand that Maciuś the First
become king. And if you refuse, there will be war."
The Prime Minister shrugged his shoulders, as if it did not concern
him in the least, and wrote on a sheet of paper with the blue pencil:
"Very well, let there be war." Then he rang his little bell and called
for good wine.
Maciuś meanwhile stood in the corridor, barefoot on the cold floor,
in nothing but his nightshirt. In the royal palace the door-handles
were so high that little Maciuś could not open the door by himself.
From behind the door came laughter and the clink of glasses,
and someone called out:
"Let us drink to the health of our defender, the great King Maciuś
the First!"
And someone else added, quietly, but clearly enough:
"I'll stake my head on it — the King will not last the week."
Maciuś went on. The old doctor was already waiting in the bedroom,
sitting beside his father's bed and holding his hand. The King opened
his eyes, looked at his little son, and whispered:
"And I don't want to die. I don't want to leave you, my son,
all alone in the world."
Maciuś did not answer. He only thought, hard and quiet — so that
no one would hear: "I'll pay them back for it, when I am king."
So began the reign of Maciuś the First.
Everything else — the wars, the children's parliament, Klu-Klu, the desert island — comes later.
Like the beginning? The whole royal story is waiting — complete edition or 10-part serial.
Janusz Korczak (1878–1942) was a Polish-Jewish pediatrician, educator, and author whose life's work was devoted to children's rights and dignity. He ran an orphanage in Warsaw and wrote landmark works on child pedagogy alongside beloved novels. When the Nazis ordered the deportation of his orphanage children to Treblinka, Korczak refused to abandon them and was murdered together with his charges. He is remembered as one of the pioneers of children's rights worldwide.
Korczak's classic, read across generations. Suggested age 9+ — the protagonist is a nine-year-old king, so children identify with Matt easily. Older readers and adults will find the serious threads: a children's parliament, war, the weight of decisions.
Can a child listen alone?+
Yes — the production is safe with nothing that needs adult supervision. The book does have serious themes (death, war, isolation on a desert island), so younger listeners may want to talk through them with a parent. The app remembers the last play position.
How long is the audiobook?+
Around 10 hours 8 minutes across 53 chapters. Listen at your child's pace — a few chapters per evening, during the school commute, in the car. First 5 minutes free in the app.
Can I buy the book in parts?+
Yes — King Matt the First is also published as a 10-part serial edition. Each part is bought separately in the store, so you can read and listen piece by piece at a lower entry price, and you own every part forever. Prefer the whole story at once? The complete edition is a single purchase — both live in the same app.
Are there ads or in-app purchases?+
0 ads. No nagging purchases mid-listen. You buy a specific book once and own it forever — no subscription, no per-chapter fees. The Android and iOS apps are live.
Can I share my account between siblings?+
Yes — one family account is enough. Siblings can listen to the same purchased book on different devices. Playback position is per device, so each child keeps their own spot in the chapter.
Who narrates this book?+
The narration is performed by a licensed synthetic voice (AI, ElevenLabs) — no cloning of real narrators. We label it on every title, in line with the EU AI Act (art. 50). The text, illustrations and music are the work of people. Play the free 3-minute sample with the ▶ button on this page.
