Forest Legend: The Tale of Ol' Split Toe

By Dan Ellens

A deer journeys through time, witnessing a resilient world transformed as humans struggle for control over nature.

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 clear-cutting 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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 196876108X
• ISBN13: 9781968761080
• Release Date: March 2026
• Publisher: Mission Point Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 13 to 18 years
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary