The Tale of Tales by Tony Mitton

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An eye catching cover which makes a book stand out amongst a shelf of assorted books must be a good thing and I was certainly drawn to this book by its cover and, I'm pleased to say, I wasn't disappointed with the contents either. The Tale of Tales was written by Tony Mitton and illustrated in black and white by Peter Bailey. The book contains a collection of small stories within the main story, a concept I enjoyed.

The main story starts deep in the jungle with monkey overhearing some parrots talking about going to hear the Tale of Tales in Volcano Valley that afternoon. The parrots decided not to spread the word as too many ground animals might turn up and they would be noisy and take up too much room. Monkey was excited and curious and decided he must try to hear the Tale of Tales so he set off at speed along the path to Volcano Valley but as he rounded the first bend he ran straight into an elephant. An excited Monkey told Elephant about the conversation he'd overheard and, as he liked a good story, Elephant decided to go too. Monkey climbed up to sit on Elephant's neck and off they went. To pass the time en route Monkey said he would tell Elephant one of his favourite stories.

This is where the stories within the main story begin and to set them apart from the main story they are told in rhyme and printed in italics. Also whereas the main story is illustrated with silhouettes a nice touch is that the short stories are illustrated with line drawings.

Monkey's story, called The Clever Servant, is about a wealthy merchant setting a task for his servants to find out who was the cleverest. He gave them a rupee and told them to fill up his store. The first servant decided to buy some earth as he could get a sizeable mound for his rupee. The second servant, a little cleverer, bought straw as this again was cheap but also much bulkier than earth and therefore filled more of the store. The third servant bought a candle, which although small, when lit, filled the room with light. She said:

'Light that your scales cannot measure or hold
but filling the darkness with glorious gold'

The merchant was impressed with her and she won the prize.

It was now Elephant's turn to tell a story so Monkey made himself comfortable and sat quietly picking fleas from his fur, as you do, and flicking them aside as he listened! Elephant's story was about five men who, whilst walking along in the dark, came across an obstacle. They all thought, having touched the obstacle, that it was something different - a snake, a spear, a boulder, a tree trunk and a swarm of flies. In fact it was an elephant; the 'snake' was his trunk, the 'spear' was the point of his tusk, the 'boulder' was his body, the 'tree trunk' was his knee and the 'flies' were its tail flicking about.

As the journey progresses more animals join Monkey and Elephant including Goat, who tells an Arabian tale, Spider who tells the story of a spider outwitting a huge snake and Bear who tells the story of the longest sleep after having been awoken from his sleep by the gang passing.

Elephant almost stepped on their next companion as she was crossing the path - Worm was a nervous little thing and didn't think she could possibly tell a whole story on her own. Goat, obviously a bit of a comedian, offered to help if she got herself tied in a knot! Worm did get in a fluster and managed to jumble up a number of stories but she had tried and the other animals praised her for that.

Next to join the gang was a Dog who told a story of the loyalty and courage of a trusty dog and he was swiftly followed by a Catwith a story called Jack and the Bush. Unexpectedly the walkers came to a split in the path and were faced with the dilemma of left or right.

Luckily Owl was above in a tree and said it didn't matter as the paths met at the other side of the lake. Owl showed them the rest of the way and entertained them with a spooky story from long ago. When they finally arrived they were amazed to find hundreds of other creatures already there, it seems the 'prattling parrots' (as the author calls them) had not managed to keep it quiet after all. Everyone wondered who the storyteller would be then a Baboon stepped forward and lit a fire in the entrance to Hot Air Cave. The assembled crowd settled down and fell silent as from within the cave a clear deep voice began, every word could easily be heard as the cave entrance acted like a megaphone. Who was it? No-one knew. What was the Tale of Tales? All I know is that it began with those timeless words 'Once upon a time.......'

Contributed by Lorna

(Published 17th Dec 2014)