Poppy or the Snake?

A hip, sly, exuberant retelling of Aesop's Man and the Serpent fable, for children of all ages—written by Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison and her son Slade Morrison, and ingeniously illustrated by Pascal Lemaitre.

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 snake wants more. This is a sly tale about who gets the last laugh.

We, the creators of the Who's Got Game? series 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 moralistic 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!

Toni Morrison (1931–2019) was 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 collaborated with his mother, Toni Morrison, on five books for children.