Forest Legend:

The Tale of Ol’ Split Toe

by

Dan Ellens

Audiobook narrated by the author

An entertaining, informative, and wonderful surprise!

Forest Legend: The Tale of Ol’ Split Toe by Dan Ellens was not at all what I expected; it was something better! The story was an entertaining, informative, and wonderful surprise. I thought I was going to get the life story of a deer, and I did, but it was just so much more as we follow him through time and Michigan’s natural past, courtesy of a time portal that calls to the creature when it opens during eclipses. 

The main character is a large buck with an impressive set of antlers, known to the locals through legend, the hoofprints he leaves behind, and the occasional and brief sightings, as Ol’ Split Toe. The story unfolds from his viewpoint as he lives through the eons, all in a small area of the Michigan peninsula. He gives readers a close-up view of what the land experienced and what the people living in the area were doing from 8500 BC to the present time. Along the way, he takes a particular interest in several of the local human inhabitants: Mukwah, a young Ojibwe hunter; Angus and Grace, a pioneering couple establishing a farm, and Edra, an educated single woman living on her own in the 1870s. 

The story describes how the land and water changed over time, how vegetation shifted from one kind to another, and how humankind impacted or was impacted by those processes, all couched within the deer’s day-to-day and time-traveled lifetime. I loved hearing his observations on those he watched, especially his story about what happened to Angus’s farm dog. The deer experiences his own exciting adventures, too; over the centuries, many dangerous situations will have you on the edge of your seat wondering how he’s going to get out of trouble. 

The audiobook edition is capably narrated by the author himself, who does a wonderful job bringing his characters to life. He speaks slowly and enunciates clearly, which really holds up well if a listener wants to play the recording at a faster speed. 

I recommend FOREST LEGEND: THE TALE OF OL’ SPLIT TOE to readers and listeners, young and old, especially those looking for an engaging nature or animal story or those who live in Michigan. 

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advance Review Copy through RABT Book Tours and PR.