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.