The Button of Love and the Little Prince Who Is Not Little Anymore

Can a single button, when gifted with love, change the course of an entire kingdom, whose King insulted and degraded his own people, tearing them apart? The answer is yes.

This tale is set in a dystopian Kingdom ruled by a tyrant King. The King loves nothing more than to hold extravagant celebrations annually, and demand that his subjects contribute to the celebrations in any way they can. He makes outrageous requests of them. One year he wanted to transform his entire palace into a giant bed, so the people had to donate their best bedding to the cause. When it’s time for the King to give up the throne and pass his crown down to his son, the Prince, who has now come of age, he gives what is most likely his most outrageous order yet: everyone must give away their most valuable jewels to him. The jewels are to be sewn onto fabric wings that the Prince is to wear on his coronation day. The Prince is not fond of his father’s idea, or the derogatory manner in which he treats his subjects, as a matter of fact. At this point, however, there’s not much he can do. He and the King go door to door to receive jewels from every house in the Kingdom. They finally arrive at a small tailor shop where a young girl lives with her grandmother. The girl’s only valuable possession is the button on her cape. They have no jewels, but the law stands: every single household must hand over jewels to the King. After harshly rejecting the girl’s offer to give up her beloved button, the King whisks the Prince away back to the palace. On coronation day the Prince goes onto the palace rooftop and tries on his new jewel-adorned wings. Unsurprisingly, the heavy jewels weigh him down and start falling off. To keep the wings from sliding off his shoulders the Prince needs a single button. He knows where he must go. He runs to the girl’s house and politely asks her to give him her button as a gift. She gifts her button to him with all her love, and they live happily ever after.

This is a tale of love and of seeking out true meaning in life.

Of course we know what we want– we want jewels. But we’re often blind to what we need, which is what truly matters.

This story gets to the root of things. It goes beyond the white noise of jewels and “wants”, and gets to the point: we need love, we need genuineness and simplicity in our lives. The young girl’s simple button, which was of no objective value, is actually more valuable to her and to the Prince because of its sentimental value. She put her love into the button, and so when she gifts it to the Prince she can't help but give away her love to him as well. Love is a simple but powerful thing, and that’s a message everyone needs to hear and read about. It is what makes this book a joy to read.