Dennis and the Fantastic Forest

Ted McGee is an associate professor of English specializing in
children’s literature at St. Jerome’s College, University of
Waterloo.

Dennis and the Fantastic Forest is the third in a series of comic tales
featuring a dopey-looking but high-achieving dragon. In this episode,
Dennis sets out to put right the devastating effects that other
fire-breathers have had on the forests. Having cultivated one surviving
seedling, he replants his favorite hill, then an entire forest, and
more. By the time he is done, “trees crowded yards, trees waded
streams, / trees sprouted from sofas and trees grew in jeans.”

Some of the fun of this story comes from Raeside’s sure-handed use of
a bouncy rhythm and rhyming couplets. But even more fun is found in the
brightly colored cartoon-style illustrations, which portray the
ridiculous success of Dennis’s reforestation efforts, include several
small jokes, and give forms and faces to other characters who inhabit
the dragon’s world. Ultimately Dennis secures the job of “Official
Park Ranger.”

While amusing in its absurdities, Dennis and the Fantastic Forest also
affirms the importance of our forests, the complex ecology they support,
and the need to protect them. Recommended.