A boastful knig of the beasts gets a thorn stuck in his paw as he can't get it out he asks a timid little mouse to pull it. Afterward they reverse roles and the lion learns humility while the mouse becomes a power mad bully and the reader is left to decide who's got game?
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Novelist Toni Morrison joins her son Slade and illustrator Pascal Lemaitre for a lively interpretation of one of Aesop’s better known fables. The trio, who last teamed up for The Book of Mean People, gives the blustery lion a chance to redeem himself after being fallen by a thorn--and lets readers see what happens when the mouse that rescues him lets his good deed go to his head. The moral of the story? "Listen up!/ Listen up!/ No ifs, maybes, ands, or buts./ The biggest bully in the land/ Does what he likes, takes what he can.../ ...believes the sizes of boots and paws/ are all you need to make the laws./ But strong or weak, big or small,/ A giant or an elf.../ Is he who wants to be a bully/ Just scared to be himself?" Hip kids will nod their heads to the beat of the lion’s strut, and chuckle at Lemaitre’s cartoon-framed illustrations. Hip grownups will let young readers mull over the Morrisons’ (and Aesop’s) message about bullying at their own pace. (All ages) --Emilie Coulter
From School Library Journal
Grade 2-5-The Morrisons extend Aesop's "Lion and the Mouse" into a hip-hop-cadenced meditation on bullying, with some role reversal. "LISTEN UP! LISTEN UP! NO IFS, MAYBES, ANDS, OR BUTS. CAN!" So roars Lion, until felled by a thorn, and Mouse squeaks a similar line, after putting Lion back on his feet. Outraged when all of the other animals only laugh, Mouse proceeds to pester Lion with complaints, until the larger animal quietly departs, leaving his house and throne to his erstwhile rescuer. LemaŒtre decks Lion out in a robe, places him in natural settings-except when the scene moves indoors-and supplies hand-lettered text and dialogue to go with the cartoon panels. After leaving Lion sitting alone asking, "Is he who wants to be a bully just scared to be himself?" the artist then closes with a puzzlingly disconnected sequence of frames involving the mouse, Lion's throne, and a buglike creature. Morrison's celebrity status may sell the book, but this patchy, illogical episode isn't likely to sell many readers on its lesson.
John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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More About the Author
Toni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. She is the author of several novels, including The Bluest Eye, Beloved (made into a major film), and Love. She has received the National Book Critics Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize. She is the Robert F. Goheen Professor at Princeton University.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Adding a zany and fun side to the tale,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Lion or the Mouse? (Who's Got Game?) (Hardcover)
Comic-book-style four-panel color drawings by Pascal Lemaitre provide an inviting format in Toni and Slade Morrison's "Who Got Game?" series. Their retelling of the classic Aesop fable about the lion and the mouse extrapolates quite a bit on the original, adding a zany and fun side to the tale and truly wonderful illustrations.
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Baddest in the Land,
By
This review is from: The Lion or the Mouse? (Who's Got Game?) (Hardcover)
Toni Morrison teams up with her son, Slade, to recreate this classic Aesop's fable. In the traditional story, a mighty lion gets a thorn stuck in its paw and must put pride aside to allow a weak little mouse remove it. The Morrison version offers animals that talk in rhyme and comic-strip illustrations. The "baddest lion in the land" struts around the savannah roaring about how powerful he is to the tiger, the hyena, the elephant, and the monkey...until he also gets a thorn stuck in its hind paw. Now the not-so-cocky lion must beg for help. The tiger, hyena, elephant, and monkey all refuse, giving him excuses that are pretty hilarious ("My wife is calling. My mother is sick. My roof is falling. I have fruit to pick."). They leave the poor lion lying in the dirt. Then a tiny mouse squeaks up with an offer to help IF the lion promises not to eat him afterwards. The lion quickly agrees to be "friends forever." Here authors Morrison give the story a twist; the next day the mouse wakes up with new-found power and struts around like HE is the "baddest lion in the land." Of course the tiger, hyena, elephant, and monkey all think this is absolutely ridiculous and laugh at the poor mouse. Morrison concludes the story with a moral in true Aesop fashion. An enjoyable adaptation!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good!!,
By Deb (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Lion or the Mouse? (Who's Got Game?) (Hardcover)
Excellent rhyming. It's a hip-hop update of an Aesop Fable favorite. My son and daughter really enjoyed reading it themselves, and having me read it.
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