The Tale of Ol' Split Toe
Action and Adventure Fantasy for teens
Date Published: 03-31-2026
Narrator: Dan Ellens
Run Time: 10 hours 6 minutes
Mother Nature struggles to maintain equilibrium in a changing world
while fire, disease, logging, human displacement, and war repeatedly destroy
forests of centuries-old trees. Split Toe, a deer chosen at birth for a unique
education, travels through time to understand the interconnected workings of a
Michigan forest. He meets humans along the way: Ice Age hunters who trap and
kill a mastodon; Mukwoh, a young Ojibwe hunter who stalks Split Toe through
swamp and forest; loggers clearcutting Michigan’s white pines; Edra, a
woman advocating for the trees; Angus and Grace, pioneers who become a first
generation of family farmers; scientists from the future studying the impact
of nuclear radiation.
Split Toe witnesses two hundred years of conflict building between modern humans -- who fight to control the natural world -- and Mother Nature, who repeatedly reaches for balance. He wonders whether human ways will ultimately overpower Mother Nature, until he meets a boy who changes everything.
