The Kingdom of Kind

by Jenny Phillips, Kessler Garrity (Illustrator)

If you use your imagination, you might be able to picture the Kingdom of Kind with its vast forests, turquoise lakes, and rolling hills of rich soil and long, waving grass. It is here that we find Prince Eric, a young man who believes power and material things should bring him happiness and cannot understand why he is so miserable. Join Prince Eric as his quest for true happiness leads him to the most unexpected places.

Genres: Childrens, Fiction

150 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2023

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

As a Christian songwriter and music producer, Jenny Phillips has released over 27 albums and has shared her love of music across the world, speaking at over 1,100 events in 23 countries and selling over a million CDs. In order to reduce the stress and time commitments that naturally come with a music label, and so she could focus more on her young family, Jenny left her music label in 2011. She now offers her music for free on www.hislightmusic.com.

When Jenny's children began going to school, she turned toward another one of her passions—education. Jenny began homeschooling in an effort to provide a faith-based, high-academic education focused on building noble character. Not wholly satisfied with any curriculum she could find and deeply concerned about the loss of good literature in our world, she founded The Good and the Beautiful.

Jenny lives in Utah with her husband and five children. In addition to music, motherhood, and good literature, Jenny loves family history, gardening, traveling, and exercising. She is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but she enjoys working with people of many faiths as she shares her multi-denominational curriculum, rejoicing in the common good that all Christians share.

(from https://www.goodandbeautiful.com/about/)

Reviews

[Megan Giompalo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book with my daughter for homeschool! It was such a sweet book with fantastic life lessons to learn about kindness and how to live more like Jesus!

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to round this up to 4 stars because my daughter loved it, but I loved it a little less. I love the sweet morals, the format, and several parts. Unfortunately, the story dragged beyond natural endings, and the characters were SO good and perfect they were unrelatable. I want my daughter to have good examples in the books she reads, but I also don't want her to feel like she's not enough if she doesn't sacrifice absolutely everything in an effort to be "good."

Spoiler

The character's dynamic transformation was incredibly steep from unbelievably awful to unbelievably good, it was hard to relate to him during any point of the book. I think the best characters are somewhere in the middle and have a two-steps-forward-one-step-back journey as they try to progress and struggle to develop new habits.

[Francesca Ricci · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good one time read

[Rose Rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you love you will cry of happiness 😊

[Jenna]

3rd graders Language Arts Student-Teacher paired reading. I want credit for having to sit thru this. 🤪

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the values taught in this heartwarming story. The power of gratitude really is transformational. I was deeply touched by a few scenes in the book and was even moved to tears. I walked away from this book with a strong desire to be more grateful in my life and to be more kind to those around me.

[Chanell Friedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really charming book and especially great for kids who like medieval/historical books. It centers around a king who changes his perspective on life and learns to appreciate his blessings.

[Patrick S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading and enjoying Timothy and the 10th floor, my daughter and I were excited to read more from the author. This book continues the dual reading for both parents and kids and the standard cliffhanger chapter endings are fun. While the setup for a story with good themes are there, the execution of the story is a bit choppy and drawn out. Prince Eric offers a main character for some major character growth, however his major character change occurs too quickly and too perfectly. The addition of mentions to God as a motivating is not really tied into the story or to the growth. The paragon character that helps Prince Eric out says God is important but these seem to be the glancing words. The "secret keys" of change are good moral undertakings but are not explicitly tied to any particular worldview that would inform how to carry them out or why. After Prince Eric's change, the second part of the story is very much drawn out and at times repetitive. The ending was not well-liked by either me or my daughter as it did complete the story but not in a way that was really satisfying. Not a bad story by any means but not a favorite. Final Grade - C-

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lyra’s Review: I read this book with my mom, and we loved the book. I loved how King Eric turned from a cruel man into a humble man. I do wish that the author didn’t have so many cliffhangers. They all did get solved except two. What happened to the man that jumped off the boat, and what happened to the scroll?

Mom’s review: I like the overall lesson, but it did drag on a bit. We also changed the ending which was be grateful, serve someone, and do work because it seems redundant. Our take away was be grateful, be humble, and serve someone else.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this with my son, it has a story about a girl named Heather who lives in Scotland. Her parents get accused of a crime and she and her brother leave in the night to go on a journey set by her mother to the Scottish Highlands solving mysteries along the way.

It also contains short grammar lessons before each chapter, so it’s really a textbook of sorts but with a story.

My son loved the story and was also interested to see what would happen next. When we finished the story he rushed to tell his sister how it had ended.

[Chloe (Always Booked) · Rating 3 out of 5]

We read this as a part of the 3rd grade TGTB curriculum and we were all very ready for it to be done by the end. This book is about Prince Eric who goes on a journey to find happiness. He finds the 3 keys to happiness: Work, gratitude and service. He goes from an AWFUL person to a really great one really easily and unbelievably. He was hard to relate to and the story felt inauthentic. There are some good side characters but this just didn't work for us.

[Mary Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a little hesitant about The Good and the Beautiful LA books. I was nervous they were going to be too cheesy and preachy to enjoy. I have been pleasantly surprised by the quality of writing (for a third grade level) and the sometimes surprising plots. My eight year old loved this story, and we were able to have some really great discussions about how being grateful and kind can bring us happiness. We finished right before Thanksgiving break, so it was perfect timing for this message.

[Ashley Backus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eric was a selfish, unkind prince of the Kingdom of Kind. He got shipwrecked at sea, and when he got to land, Peter and his family helped. They taught him the keys of happiness. It changed Eric‘s life completely. This book was adventurous and full of action. I think it’s a good example of how to be kind. I would recommend this book because it’s exciting and suspenseful. It also teaches a good lesson about life.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this one! Had a great message about what kindness can do, not only to one heart but to an entire kingdom. Leaders set the precedent, and this book did a wonderful job showing the effect kindness can have on the trajectory of your life and the lives around you. Ivy said it was her second favorite after Timothy of the Tenth Floor (also by Jenny Phillips).

[Rachelle Church · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a good book. Prince Eric turned from mean to kind in the story. If he wouldn’t have changed from mean to kind he wouldn’t have married his wife Rose or known that he was not the rightful king. I would recommend it to other 3rd and 4th graders. Blakely age 8

[Arielle]

Great read ! Both my child and I really enjoyed reading this book together !!

[Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son and I read this together for school. He gives it 5 stars with the lessons and story. It’s about family, love, gratitude and service! What great lessons!

[Amber Kneece · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this with my children for homeschooling. They loved it and kept asking to read more. There were some really great lessons to life in it.

[Rachel Summerlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good book to read alongside my son. A bit of a Mary Sue but it kept an 8year old boy’s attention and had a good message.

[Georgina Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great read

[Nicole Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book to go along with our studies.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this with my 3rd grader and loved the great values, well written story, and interesting characters in the book! A great read for us together!

[Autumn Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This became a new favorite with my son and I. Remembering the keys of kindness (grattitude, service and hard work) have become important to us.

[Cat Denmark · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 8yo thought this was an inspiring book and even wrote a letter to the author. :)

[Josie · Rating 4 out of 5]

My son has been loving reading this series together this year.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

T and I really enjoyed this story and usually wanted to read more than what was assigned.

[Hannah Shifflett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this with my youngest daughter and it was precious. Wonderful message!

[All Shades of Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me and Miss Q loved this book!

[Paige Perrine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this with my son during homeschool. Great read!

[Heather Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

We LOVED this book. It was originally part of her gomesxhopl curriculum and we read the short version there. I was thrilled they made either into a full book. LOVE all her books.