• Age: 5 to 9
• Grade: k to 4

Author-illustrator Matt Hammill has created a tongue-in-cheek adventure story where fantasy and reality merge, with hilarious results. The eponymous hero is an armchair explorer on a quest for a Lost Tablet of Illusion, stolen by an elusive beast. Sir Reginald's quest takes the reader on a journey through figments and flights of imagination on one hand, and through his mild-mannered home life on the other.

Is that the deafening buzz of the carnivorous elephant beetle --- or Sir Reginald's alarm clock? Does the tiger-stripe viper lie stretched across his path --- or is it a sock? What is the nature of this Lost Tablet and its awesome power? As Sir Reg veers comically between worlds, the imagination emerges as the most powerful charm of all.

Matt Hammill Sir Reginald’s Logbook is the product of the clever mind and talented pen of Matt Hammill. The original mock-up of this story was unveiled at a student art show held by the Sheridan Institute, where he graduated with a degree in illustration. Matt grew up in the 1980s in Mississauga, Ontario, drawing video-game bad guys and digging for dinosaur bones in his backyard. These days he can most often be found drawing illustrations, making animations … or watching Star Trek.

Matt Hammill's profile page

• Short-listed, Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award
• Short-listed, Best Books for Kids and Teens, Canadian Children's Book Centre
• Winner, Children's Choices, International Reading Association

Hammill's drawings are as fun and energetic as his story ...The design of the book ... represents [an] embarrassment of riches, with the whole thing made to resemble an actual logbook ... it works.

Quill & Quire

The story may even encourage them to spend some time away from the Tablet of Illusion embarking on their own adventures.

School Library Journal

... Hammill's debut celebrates the pleasures of a freewheeling imagination by spinning breathtaking adventure from the daily business of living.

Kirkus Review

Kids who revel in turning their humdrum world into landscapes rife with danger will enjoy seeing that transformation brought whimsically to life here.

Booklist

Sir Reginald’s Logbook

Calling all armchair adventurers and vicarious voyagers: Sir Reginald is on a quest to find the legendary Lost Tablet of Illusion and he’s taking you with him! On this exciting expedition of epic proportions, there’s no Carnivorous Elephant Beetle too savage, no Gargantuan Vampire Bat too ferocious, no Tiger-Stripe Viper too wild and no pair of pants too bloodthirsty that they can’t be defeated.

In author/illustrator Matt Hammill’s first picture book, Sir Reginald’s Logbook, he cleverly and seamlessly weaves together two tales – one fantasy and one reality – using delightfully comical illustrations. The lush watercolours depict Sir Reginald’s implausible jungle adventure as it exists in his mind and the stark black-and-white inks show the escapade for what it really is – an imaginative but nutty man’s heroic exploration into the depths of his living room. He thinks he’s battling a Great Purple Angler-Fish when he’s really fighting with an errant electrical cord, he thinks he’s sleeping by a flickering campfire when he’s really sitting next to a burnt out candle in an old-fashioned chamberstick, and that blunderbuss he thinks he’s wielding? Well, it’s a toilet plunger.

Simply put, Sir Reginald’s Logbook is an incredibly fun picture book filled with melodrama, action, adventure and suspense! Hammell’s expressive and animated illustrations steal the show and will surely make readers laugh out loud. The hilarious logbook entries are particularly gripping and will have readers perched at the edges of their seats with their toilet plungers in hand.

Sir Reginald’s Logbook

Sir Reginald is a lovable but nutty armchair explorer on a quest for the Lost Tablet of Illusion. The lush watercolours depict his implausible jungle adventure as it exists in his mind, and the stark black-and-white illustrations show the escapade for what it really is — an imaginative man’s heroic exploration into the depths of his living room.