The King and the Seed, by Eric Maddern and Paul Hess

I love it when you come across a book that teaches your child a beautiful life lesson that you couldn’t teach them nearly as well by yourself. ‘The King and the Seed’ is just such a book. Every child – and probably most adults – struggle with honesty at some point, and this book teaches the valuable lesson that honesty will always be the best policy.

A quick google search tells me that there are several versions of this story around. Sometimes called the ‘The Emperor’s Seed’ or ‘The Honesty Seed’; some say it is Chinese in origin, others say it is Islamic. Whatever the case, Eric Maddern’s Anglo version about a King is beautifully illustrated and hits all the important points to make the moral lesson obvious.

When I first read this with my kids I didn’t realise that this picture book was going to teach an important lesson. It was chosen at the library and went into the library bag without much thought. Even as I was reading it with the kids the story sounded familiar, but I couldn’t quite remember what was going to happen. When the moral of the story became clear I was actually really moved by the courage and honesty displayed by the main character, Jack.

I also thought about King Karnak and how relieved he would have felt to know the character of the person he was selecting to inherit his kingdom. It reminded me of the feeling you get as a parent when you catch your child doing the right thing, like cleaning up a mess they didn’t make, or reading to their younger sibling while you feed the baby. Like King Karnak who must have been losing hope for his kingdom, sometimes we as parents lose hope over the things our children do. But then you get those moments of joy when you see that all the work you put into your children is not wasted.