Who's Got Game?: The Ant or the Grasshopper?, The Lion or the Mouse?, Poppy or the Snake? [Hardcover]

Toni Morrison (Author), Slade Morrison (Author), Pascal Lemaitre (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 2007

All three "New York Times" bestselling fables from the Morrisons are now available in this single volume. Told with vibrant language and rich in rhythm, these three "Who's Got Game" empowering fables ("The Ant or the Grasshopper?", "The Lion or the Mouse?" and "Poppy or the Snake?") are now available in one handsome package. Pascal Lemaitre's ingenious illustrations add sophistication and spirit to the Morrisons' wry and defiantly ambiguous text make the "Who's Got Game?" series a favourite among both adults and children alike. "The Ant or The Grasshopper?" - "In our versions", says Toni Morrison, "the original stories are opened up and their moralistic endings re-imagined: 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." "The Lion or the Mouse?" - The second in a series of six illustrated books retelling Aesop's fables in a hip and lively manner, this book is a deft and witty send-up of a culture that sucks up to anyone with the trappings of power. The "baddest in the land" cocky lion believes himself invincible until he gets a thorn stuck in his paw. Only a little mouse can help him, so the lion must indulge the mouse's greedy pride and lust for power. The mouse believes a lion's physique is all he needs to be king of the jungle, but finds it tough with only a squeak..."Poppy or the Snake?" - Poppy, a bearded Bayou-dwelling African American grandfather, regales a small boy with a tale that illuminates the issues arising when two creatures who are predisposed by culture to distrust one another act antithetically to that inclination. After Poppy accidentally runs over Snake, Snake talks Poppy into making amends by taking him home and then pretends to become Poppy's friend. However, a snake is, after all, snake, and eventually he acts on his nature and bites Poppy. For his part, Poppy is prepared, as any experienced swamp-dwelling human would be, for this likely possibility. All three books are also available as single editions from turnaround.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize-winning American author, editor, and professor. Her contributions to the modern canon are numerous.  Some of her acclaimed titles include: The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988.  She won the Nobel Prize for Literature 1993.

Slade Morrison was born in Ohio and educated in New York City. He studied art at SUNY Purchase and maintains a studio in Rockland County where he lives.  He has collaborated with his mother on three previous books for children.

Pascal Lemaitre illustrated Toni and Slade Morrison's bestselling Who's Got Game?: Three Fables, as well as many other books for children. He and his family divide their time between Brussels, Belgium, where he teaches illustration, and Brooklyn, New York. Visit him online at PascalLemaitre.com.

From AudioFile

Toni Morrison reads three fables by Aesop that she has updated with her son, Slade. She gives each classic vitality and invites listeners to reexamine the moral found in the ending. In the first story, her hip-hop rhythm engages the listener in the story of Foxie G. (Grasshopper), a fun-loving, basketball-playing music fan, and his cohort ace, Kid A (Ant). The second story, a retelling of the lion rescued from a thorn by a small mouse, also rhymes, but Morrison gives its gentler rhythms a softer narration. The last story, Poppy or the Snake, tells of a grandfather who uses story to teach his grandson about paying attention. The story is rich in dialect as Morrison reads, especially in the character of the sass-mouthed snake. S.W. 2008 Grammy Nominee © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1st Combined Ed edition (January 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743283910
• ISBN-13: 978-0743283915
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,733,321 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My first graders loved it - and so did I!, April 9, 2009

By 

Cherie E. Swanlund "literature lover" (Fallbrook, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Who's Got Game?: The Ant or the Grasshopper?, The Lion or the Mouse?, Poppy or the Snake? (Hardcover)

All three tales in this story book capture children's hearts and imaginations. It was fun to have my class vote on whether they sympathized more with the ant or the grasshopper. They were unanimous in siding with the grasshopper. I'm buying this so I can read it year after year to my students. Thanks, Toni and Slade, for writing such a wonderful book.