Tal is the story of a little boy with a love of adventure, one of the distinguished books for children that enthrall each new generation in turn. Recalling the marvels and atmosphere of the Arabian Nights, this is a book destined, in the words of The Horn Book Magazine, to find a place "on the same shelf with The Wind in the Willows and Alice in Wonderland."

Young Tal journeys to the land of Troom with Noom-Zor-Noom, a wise old man, and his snow-white donkey Millitinkle, finding all the excitement and thrills he could ever have dreamed. Each evening during the journey, old Noom-Zor-Noom tells another fabulous tale of adventure which he has written on a block of black crystal, stories filled with high romance and hair-breadth escapes, unexpected miracles and magic. These wonderful tales are meant to open the Golden Door, which will give its secret to the storyteller who pleases it.

Written with beauty and suspense, the story builds to a thrilling climax when the three travelers of lost reach the kingdom of Troom and Tal's real identity is revealed.

Recommended by reviewers and librarians ever since first publication, Tal has already become a classic of its kind.

From the dust jacket of the 1957 Stephen Daye Press edition