Who's Got Game? Poppy or the Snake?

by Toni Morrison, Slade Morrison, Pascal Lemaître (Illustrator)

In this clever riff on Aesop, Poppy feels guilty when he accidentally drives over Snake, and he decides to risk being bitten in order to free the sassy reptile. But smake wants more. This is a sly tale about who gets the last laugh.
We, the creators of Who's Got Game? were inspired by the wonder of Aesop's Fables -- their vitality, their endless demand for more interpretations. In our versions the original stories are opened up and their moralisitic endings reimagined; the victim might not lose; the timid gets a chance to become strong; the fool can gain insight; the powerful may lose their grip. ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. More than a play on these beloved fables, Who's Got Game? is AESOP LIVE!

Genres: Childrens

40 pages, Hardcover

First published January 6, 2004

About the author

Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison, known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist and editor. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed Song of Solomon (1977) brought her national attention and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1988, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved (1987); she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.
Born and raised in Lorain, Ohio, Morrison graduated from Howard University in 1953 with a B.A. in English. Morrison earned a master's degree in American Literature from Cornell University in 1955. In 1957 she returned to Howard University, was married, and had two children before divorcing in 1964. Morrison became the first black female editor for fiction at Random House in New York City in the late 1960s. She developed her own reputation as an author in the 1970s and '80s. Her novel Beloved was made into a film in 1998. Morrison's works are praised for addressing the harsh consequences of racism in the United States and the Black American experience.
The National Endowment for the Humanities selected Morrison for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities, in 1996. She was honored with the National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters the same year. President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on May 29, 2012. She received the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction in 2016. Morrison was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2020.

Reviews

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

hey man, i'm a snake. you knew that... and paying attention is just a way of taking yourself seriously.

[Sarah Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting modern day fable.

[Jari Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remember a snake will always be a snake. So pay attention. This one was a good one.

[Sela · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Paying attention is just a way of taking yourself seriously”

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

So cute! So engaging and interesting. Loved it!

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found in A Toni Morrison Treasury: . Each "Who's Got Game" riff on Aesop that Slade and Toni created is different. Sometimes the character or outcome we're rooting for is offered... sometimes not. I wanted this one to have a 'happier' ending. But hey, the theme is Pay Attention and Poppy did benefit from being smart enough to do that.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

The actual retelling was cute, but the framing story felt confusing. I don't understand what the story had to do with the problem presented at the beginning. The graphic novel format works, but I found the cursive a bit hard to read at times, and I write cursive and grew up reading it, so I can't imagine how people who haven't really encountered it will be able to read it. It just felt an odd choice that puts a barrier in place. So mixed feelings overall.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny little story

[Mills College Library]

Fiction M8812w 2003

[Sierra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the twist on the fable of the farmer and the snake. Also cool to discover Toni Morrison wrote books like these.

[Miri Gifford · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll be honest: I probably wouldn't have cared much for this book if it wasn't by Toni Morrison. I don't love the parable it's based on (the snake who asks for help and promises not to bite the man who helps him, then of course bites him with the explanation, "Hey. I'm a snake.").

[K Browne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt like I heard someone tell this story to me before. However, I enjoyed it much better this time.

[Dava Tuttle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The artwork was beautiful and the conversational language used was very refreshing.