Tell to someone

J. R. R. Tolkien used to make up his own stories to tell to his children.

No typo

''Stories to tell to children''  =  stories (to tell = infinitive clause modifying 'stories') to children

stories to children

'to' does not hinge on the verb tell

Sashasaski wrote:

in this situation, it looks like tell is not a verb. The sentence can be broken up to following: J. R. R. Tolkien / used to make up / his own stories to tell / to his children. It is a classic example of S.V.O.O. IMHO. "to" could have as easily been replaced with "for."

Your parsing is faulty.

IMHO -- H = humble?

Tell is not  verb? News to me.

Tell cannot be anything else than verb.

J. R. R. Tolkien used to make up his own stories to tell to his children.

J. R. R. Tolkien -- S

used to make up -- V

his own stories -- O

(so as) to tell (the stories) to his children -- reason (sub-)clause -- so as to = adverbial conjunction

Mr-Taciturn wrote:

Inchoateknowledge wrote: J. R. R. Tolkien used to make up his own stories to tell to his children. Typo What about this book title ; ''Stories to tell to children''  A book by Sara Cone Bryant

J. R. R. Tolkien used to make up his own stories to tell to his children.

J. R. R. Tolkien -- S

used to make up -- V

his own stories -- O

(so as) to tell (the stories) to his children -- reason (sub-)clause -- so as to = adverbial conjunction

No typo really, sorry