I truly think it would be much safer for Arianna to be eating wild berries and other less potentially problematic plants (as you most certainly do not want a child trying to collect and consume wild carrots in the forest). Yes, they are considered delicacies by avid naturalists and foragers, but wild carrots especially look so confusingly similar to the extremely toxic (and often lethal if ingested) water and poison hemlock, that even in field guides which actively promote and encourage wild gathering, it is generally mentioned that wild carrots should ONLY ever be harvested and consumed by experts, by those who know what they are doing and can distinguish wild carrots from lethally toxic look-alikes (not to mention that touching wild carrot plants can also cause severe photo-sensitivity in some people). I also have to wonder and question why Lynne Cherry has Arianna eating wild asparagus and wild carrots in the forest. Maybe I am being a bit harsh here, but that whole sequence of events feels unnerving, and in fact, rather majorly frightening.
It would be far less creepy and uncanny, if Arianna were to venture into the forest by herself and then get rescued by the dragon and the unicorn (the same environmental message could be presented, but without the for me almost inappropriate child-luring aspect). Also, I do NOT at all appreciate that the dragon and the unicorn actively seem to lure and entice the little girl into the forest (as it feels somewhat like a child being abducted).
And while I appreciate and wholeheartedly support the message of environmental responsibility demonstrated (and truly love the luminous and lushly descriptive accompanying illustrations), that very same message could be and should be a bit more elegantly and subtly presented (if I want to read an environmental lecture, I will read a non fiction book on the same, as with a fairy tale, as with fiction, I primarily desire a story, and any ulterior messages should be a bit hidden and not so in one's proverbial face). Lynne Cherrys The Dragon and the Unicorn is really rather too heavy-handed with regard to its environmental message (often reading more like an infomative but dry lecture on environmental protection than the original environmentally themed fairy tale it is supposed to be).
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