Ranger Rick (magazine)

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## Ranger Rick (magazine)

* 1967
* 1982
* 2000
* 2016

### Genre

Nature
Science
Children's magazine

### Publisher

National Wildlife Federation

***Ranger Rick** (formerly* ***Ranger Rick's Nature Magazine)*** is a children's nature magazine that is published by the National Wildlife Federation. The magazine has articles and activities for children, ages 7 and up, in order to spark their interest in the natural world and the outdoors and become more actively involved in the environment. The NWF also publishes two spinoff magazines, *Ranger Rick Jr. (for* ages 4–7), and *Ranger Rick Cub*, (for ages 0–4 years old.)

## History

In 1959, J.A. "Ash" Brownridge (1917-2015) wrote the book "The Adventures of Rick Raccoon" starring an anthropomorphic raccoon named Rick and his friends at the Deep Green Wood, under the pseudonym John A. Morris. After seeing a book a colleague sent from Japan that featured a tanuki, he was inspired to create a book to teach children the value of conservation. Two years later, in 1960, he written another book entitled "Ranger Rick and the Great Forest Fire". Then, on January 1967, the first issue of Ranger Rick's Nature Magazine was published. The magazine was so popular, that by 1972, NWF's membership tripled in number, to work on the magazine.

The first illustrator of the magazine was painter Lorin Thompson, who drew the characters in a realistic yet expressive manner. In 1982, he was replaced by Alton Langford, giving the characters a redesign. By then, he was the first illustrator to draw new characters Scarlett Fox and Boomer Badger. This lasted until 1999, when Robby Gilbert took over as the new illustrator, since the magazine shifted from short story to comic strip. In 2009, British company TheCharacterShop became the new illustrators, rendering the comics into 3D. But in 2016, TheCharacterShop, under the direction of Parker Jacobs, gave the comics a new cartoony 2D style.

*Ranger Rick* is the oldest and biggest children's nature magazine. The National Wildlife Federation first published the magazine as *Ranger Rick's Nature Magazine*, in January 1967 and readers have since passed on their interest to their own children.

## Magazine features

The magazine mainly contains many non-fiction articles about animals and the natural world. There are also activities such as games, activities, riddles, poetry, contests, questions and answers, and jokes. The magazine is most famous for the *Ranger Rick Adventures* (formerly *Ranger Rick and his Friends*), a comic strip (previously a short story) which chronicles the adventures of the mascot Ranger Rick and the animals of the fictional Deep Green Wood. In many comics, the gang visits a certain animal, learns a fact about it, and protects the animal from human destructiveness.

For a list of features over the years, see List of magazine features.

## Spinoff magazines

***Ranger Rick Jr.*** is a magazine for children ages 4 to 7. It has its origins in ***Your Big Backyard***, a magazine aimed at preschoolers and kids ages 3 to 7. It was established in 1979 as a sister publication to Ranger Rick and *Wild Animal Baby*, both published by the National Wildlife Federation. The bulk of the magazine consisted of children's activities.

The name of the magazine was changed to *Big Backyard* in September, 2011. In December 2012 NWF merged *Wild Baby Animal* and *Big Backyard* to create a new magazine for children ages 4 to 7, called *Ranger Rick, Jr.*.

## Trivia

* During the 1970s, vinyl recordings of issues of the magazine were released for blind readers to understand the contents of the month's issue.
* A *Ranger Rick* magazine briefly appears in a deleted scene of a 1995 episode of *The Simpsons* entitled "Bart's Comet."

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Kenneth B. Kidd, *Wild things: children's culture and ecocriticism* (Wayne State University Press, 2004)
2. ↑ Magazines for Families and Children. National Wildlife Federation. Retrieved on October 8, 2007.
3. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsIPlO40dFI&feature=share
4. ↑ https://www.thecharactershop.co.uk/portfolio-posts/rangerrick/
5. ↑ Meet Ranger Rick. *National Wildlife Federation*. Retrieved on March 18, 2010.
6. ↑ Template:Cite journal
7. ↑ National Science Resources Center (U.S.), Resources for teaching elementary school science (National Academies Press, 1996)
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 FAQs About Ranger Rick Jr. Magazine
9. ↑ Archived copy. Archived from the original on September 15, 2011. Retrieved on August 29, 2011.
10. ↑ [1]
11. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlzzEgJFwqY
12. ↑ https://twitter.com/dailysimpsons/status/1489979076332994572

## External links

* National Wildlife Federation *Ranger Rick*