Though its target readership probably won’t notice, older readers – as in 30-plus years of age – might find that the title character of author/illustrator Matt Hammill’s first book bears a striking resemblance to Uncle Travelling Matt from Fraggle Rock. Both are generously moustachioed, both sport a pith helmet and a safari suit, and, most crucially, both are more than a little befuddled, with a chronic tendency to view the mundane world around them as being filled with the perilous and perplexing.

Where Uncle Travelling Matt sent back missives from “outer space” (i.e., the human world), Sir Reginald records the fevered details of his exotic adventures in his home and backyard. In search of the Lost Tablet of Illusions, he must battle the buzzing Carnivorous Elephant Beetle (his digital alarm clock), Gargantuan Vampire Bats (the clothes in his closet), and a Tiger-Stripe Viper (a sock), among other beasties. He finally discovers the Lost Tablet (the TV remote), only to have yet another adventure beckon.

Mississauga, Ontario’s Matt Hammill is all about the fun here, with no attendant sombre message – just the standard one of imagination being a very enjoyable thing. (He even passes up the chance to take anything more than the gentlest swipe at TV’s illusion-creating power.) Hammill’s drawings are as fun and energetic as his story, with the pages laid out so that alongside Sir Reginald’s full-colour watercolour-and-ink adventures are smaller, black-and-white pictures that reveal the “real” story. The design of the book, in fact, represents a kind of embarrassment of riches, with the whole thing made to resemble an actual logbook. It’s a fairly deluxe format for such a lighthearted tale, and it works.