The King's Garden Author Interview
The King's Garden is a wonderful children's book which looks at helping children to explore what it means to be a Christian, how we should live under King Jesus, and how God grows the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.
We asked author Mike Cain some questions about what prompted him to write the book, what he hopes children (and parents!) will gain from the book, and where his thoughts on cabbage soup and hot buttered toast come from!
What prompted you to write the book?
Well, I think there are lots of really wonderful books for children about how Jesus is our King, but I couldn't find anything about what it sort of actually feels like to live for our King. So I worried that lots of children sort of end up thinking that being a Christian is about trying really hard to be better, and I wanted to talk about really the work of the Holy Spirit. I wanted to talk about how our King gives us his Spirit to enable us to change in ways we couldn't in our own strength, so that's the kind of book I wanted to write.
Can you summarise the book in a sentence or two?
Well the book is it's an allegory, it's a story of a little girl called Esther who lives in a city that has a really bad Emperor who's in charge and the city's full of thistles and thorns, and everyone has to eat cabbage soup and it's miserable. And then the city is taken over by a really good King and he wants to transform the city, so he sends his helper to give the people of the city power to grow fruit. Beautiful fruit. He wants to fill the city with plums and pears and peaches, and the story is really of how Esther becomes one of the King's gardeners and how she learns to grow fruit for the King. In particular how she learns to grow strawberries for Jam, to have on hot butter toast, to share with her friends.
What is your hope for those children who read the book?
I really hope the children who read it will have a sense of how good the King is, and how beautiful the fruit that he wants us to grow is, so that they really want to serve him in their hearts. And I hope that they really kind of get it, the fact that they're not just left to do that in their own strength, but they turn to him and ask for his help, and that by his Spirit he'd help them. I hope the book reassures them on the days when it's hard, because it is hard, on the days when it's hard they'd be reassured that growing fruit takes time.
Were you forced to eat cabbage soup as a child?
I don't think I was ever forced to eat cabbage soup but I do remember reading about it in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it's what Charlie Bucket and his family used to eat for supper and I just associate cabbage soup with kind of tough times.
Is strawberry jam on hot butter toast your favourite?
I love toast, and I love anyone who makes me toast. And if you make me thick slices of white toast with lots of melted butter on it, and homemade strawberry jam, you've got a friend for life.
What is your favourite piece of feedback from the book in the last six years?
I love it when adults tell me that whenever they read the book it they end up crying. I love it when families tell me that it's the book their children want them to read over and over, but I think I'm particularly excited when I hear stories of how the book has helped parents, and carers, talk to Children about the Christian Life. There's there's one story of a little boy, I think he was about five, who started helping his father do the weeding in the gardening. He says he wanted to help because he wanted to become one of the King's gardeners, and that gave him and his dad a chance to have a really lovely discussion about what it means to be a King's Gardener. Apparently they had a really interesting discussion about what it means to fight sin and to weed sin out of your life and so that kind of conversation off the back of the book really thrills me.
