About ‘The Boy and the Boy King’

About the book

2021 INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST

What is The Boy and the Boy King all about and why would children love to read it?

It is about wonder and imagination!  It is a deeply inspiring story, written for children (of all ages), that speaks volumes about friendship that knows no boundaries—a friendship between a boy from New York City, called Arthur, and the boy king, Tutankhamun.

Arthur and his stuffed bunny, Bun-Bun, gaze at a star-lit New York cityscape while far away the great Sphinx of Egypt sleeps at the foot of the Giza Pyramids. These two worlds meet when the boy and his bunny—his imaginary friend and soul mate, travel through the Temple of Dendur at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum to another time and place, and befriend the lonely boy king, Tutankhamun. What unfolds is a marvelous glimpse into the imagination and innocence of childhood, told through the magical adventures of a city boy and his new friend, young Tut.

 

 

Interview with the authors

Here is a recent conversation we had with George H. Lewis and Arthur D. Lubow, co-creators of The Boy and the Boy King (AUC Press, December 2020).

The book addresses friendship, hope, peace, tolerance, imagination, dreams…. How much do children need any of this, especially in today’s world?

Arthur: In our view, the shortage of friendship, hope, peace, and tolerance stems from a failure of imagination. In our book, two boys, the boy and the boy king, armed only with their unspoiled, innate sense of wonder, who come from different “time zones,” wage peace, not war. It is a celebration of childhood innocence and heart-sourced imagination, which leads to friendship and understanding, something the world needs more of right now.

George: The heart is a kind of mid-body divinity. If we are to evolve as a species, we must unleash it. If we as humans can learn to be children again, if we can learn to let our sense of creativity flow through our soul, then friendship, hope, peace, tolerance, and transformative dreams will follow and our humanity will evolve.  We’re naturally wired to imagine. This is our software. It’s the unspoiled heavenly code that reconnects us with the stars, shows us the source of our beginnings and guides us to where we must go.

Read the complete interview.

Online book launch

In this recorded Zoom webinar (live on December 2, 2020),  the authors spoke about the making of the book, the creative process, and the illustrations, and answered questions asked by their special panel member, ten-year-old Simron, an avid reader of children’s books. They then in turn asked her about her favorite passage of the book, what she learned after reading the book, and why imaginary friends such as Bun-bun, are important.

 

Extract from the book

“Nighttime is the daytime of the desert. Near a cluster of pyramids, our travelers stumbled across a camp of nomads who seemed to be awakening as the sun went down.
By a campfire, under a shower of shooting stars and ancient stories, the strangeness of the nomads’ language melted away and Arthur was delighted to discover he could understand every word. Amid the mingling aromas of frankincense, juniper, rose, and myrrh, the nomads described mysterious beauties near and far.
The water are mighty at flood time,
O night, my love forever.
Escape from the presence of hardship,
The muse and the madness of prophecy,
The mystic rites of love.
Arthur had no idea whatsoever what any of this meant, and yet his entire body shivered with its ancient wisdom.”

About the authors

George H. Lewis is an internationally acclaimed British-born painter, photographer, healer, lecturer, and artist. His paintings have been hung in museums and galleries around the world. Based in New York City, his studio work focuses on themes of nature, interfaith, trans-cultural connectivity, and the healing power of empathy.

The Boy and the Boy King, which he illustrated, is his first book to be published.

Arthur J. Lubow loves to promote good causes, whether in education, the arts, the environment and the green economy, or in spirituality.
In addition to stories, he writes songs and makes videos.
He works in New York City to help to change the world for the good.
The Boy and the Boy King is his first picture book.

 

 

 

About the illustrations and the illustrator

The illustrations in the book are soft, rendered in gentle tones. The mood they evoke are almost dreamy, magical, fairy-like as if to convey the purity and wonder that exists in the realm of a child’s world of imagination.

“If I’ve succeeded in showing what childlike innocence and imagination look like from the inside out, I’ve done what I set out to do. And it’s wonderful to think that the interplay between the prose-poetry of the book and the lyrical brushstrokes of the illustrations are a metaphor for the book’s central theme: the convergence of mind and heart.”—George H. Lewis

 

This is George H. Lewis’ unique one-of-a-kind masterpiece—a ‘La Mer’ Steinway & Sons piano.

 

 

Reviews of the book

“A genius of a book that captures the essence of what it means to be a spiritual being and a creative child.”― Caroline Myss, bestselling author of Anatomy of the Spirit

“An unforgettable voyage. Superb!“― Henry Hemming, bestselling author of Agents of Influence

“Exquisite…arresting…The Boy and the Boy King invites parents to ask themselves this critical question: how do you support and protect a child’s imagination?” ― Jane Curley, curator of Eloise at the Museum and Madeline in New York

“Gentle, insightful and powerful.” ―Bear Grylls, host of the TV series, Born Survivor, Bear Grylls and Man vs. Wild

 

Photo exhibition

The traveling exhibition entitled “May We All Grow Up to be Children,” featuring George H. Lewis’s illustrations from The Boy and the Boy King, went on display at the Westchester Children’s Museum and at Sands Point Preserve Conservancy, in New York.

At the Met

The book is now available in the Met Store at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

 

 

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