WHO'S GOT GAME? Three Fables: The Ant or the Grasshopper?, The Lion or the Mouse?, Poppy or the Snake?

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 [Published: FEB/ MAR 08]