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Dennis and the Fantastic Forest
Adrian Raeside
Subject Headings:
Kindergarten - grade 7 / Ages 5 - 12.
**** /4
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excerpt:
Dennis the Dragon was filling his pack with picnic food for a hike up the track. Chicken on doughnuts, green jelly in pastry, Strawberry noodles-this will be tasty!He put on his backpack, buckled it down and set off for his favourite spot out of town. When he got to the woods he sat down with a bump, his beautiful trees were ugly black stumps.
This is the beginning of the rhyming story of Dennis the Dragon who decides to replant the burned trees. He gets carried away, however, and soon the whole town of Dragonville has been engulfed by trees. "Trees crowded yards, trees waded streams, trees sprouted from sofas and trees grew in jeans." I was particularly amused by the tree growing in the chesterfield, its roots poking from beneath the cushions like legs, while it ate popcorn and watched TV. Finally the townspeople convince Dennis that he must remove the trees overrunning their town, and they hire him as official park ranger to guard the forest against further fires.
Adrian Raeside is a syndicated editorial cartoonist from Vancouver Island. This is his third Dennis book. The previous ones are Dennis the Dragon and Dennis and the Big Clean-up.
Though some older children might be initially put off by the picture-book format of this book, the humourous pictures and text should appeal to students from kindergarten up to at least grade eight. As well, many high school students and adults will be as amused as I was at some of the illustrations.
Recommended.
Irene Gordon is a teacher-librarian who retired at the end of June after spending the last 14 years working in a junior high school library in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She is presently co-editor of the Manitoba School Library Association Journal.
To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.
Copyright © 1997 the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.
Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - NOVEMBER 28, 1997.
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