Audiobook of the series published in 2007,audible.com.au (accessed: December 30, 2020).

Poppy or the Snake is set in the American Deep South. The little boy, Nate, has been spending the summer holidays with his grandfather Poppy, fishing, swimming, and picking blackberries. One night after summer Nate confesses that he doesn’t want to return to school. His grades are bad, his Dad calls him lazy, and his Mom says he can’t concentrate. In response, Poppy pulls out a pair of shiny boots, which he calls his remembering boots, that help him to pay attention. Nate is confused, and Poppy sits down at the table to tell his favourite grandson a story of something that happened to him. 

One night Poppy goes out fishing, and when he returns to his truck he discovers that a snake is wedged under his back wheel. The creature is still alive, and angry, and it says "Is you going to leave me here to die like a dog?" Poppy is apologetic, and as the snake rants and rails, he promises to carefully move the truck. Then he hesitates; he is afraid of what the poisonous snake will do to him when it is released. The snake assures him that he will not bite, "you ain’t my enemy baby, you my saviour, see?" But Poppy continues to worry, and asks the snake to agree, promise and swear, to which to snake replies: "I agree man. And I promise and I swear, I will never even think of biting you."

The truck is moved, and the snake is free. Poppy prepares to leave, but the snake puts on a tragic performance, pointing out that he is hungry and wounded, and asks to be taken home. Poppy is aghast, but when the creature again challenges his sympathy towards his victim, he acquiesces. Back in his cabin he feeds the snake and tends to its injuries. The following day the snake asks to stay another night, and growing to like his guest more, despite his "sassy mouth", Poppy agrees. 

Poppy drives to town to run errands and pick up groceries. When he finally gets home, the snake, curled up in his bed, reproaches him for abandoning him. Poppy replies that he would never to that to a friend. He insists they trust each other "all the way to the grave". The days pass peacefully, but Poppy notices that snake grows restless and bored; he needles Poppy about getting a TV or a radio, and sulks when Poppy explains that he likes the peace and quiet. 

Poppy is asleep in his bed with the snake close by on the floor, when he is awoken by a sharp pain in his forearm. The snake has bitten him! Incensed, Poppy demands to know why he broke his promise. The snake replies, "as casually as you please, Hey Man. I’m a snake. You knew that." He makes to slither out the door. 

The book returns to the frame narrative of Poppy and Nate. Poppy laughs and slaps his knees as Nate, quite shocked, asks his grandfather how he survived. Poppy reveals that he recognised the sophistry of the snake’s promise; he swore he would not even think of biting him, not that he would not bite him. On his trip into town, Poppy acquired a snake serum. But as he stresses to Nate, it is not simply the anti-venom that saved him, but his ability to pay attention. Poppy turns up the lamp, and lifts his remembering boots on to the table, fashioned out of the "softest, shiniest snakeskin." No more words as said on the book’s final pages, which show Poppy and Nate going out in the dark, getting in the truck, and driving to town, where they join a busker in a jam session, with Poppy on the harmonica.

Like the two other books in the Morrison’s Who’s Got Game? series, Poppy or the Snake is a reworking of the fables of Aesop, in which the traditional tales are adapted to explore more sophisticated and ambiguous moral territory. This book draws upon Aesop’s The Farmer and the Viper, in which a farmer finds a snake freezing in the snow, and taking pity on it, puts it inside his jacket to keep warm, whereupon it bites him. As he dies, the farmer realises that it is his own fault, the source of the idiom "to nourish a viper in one’s bosom." A second fable, with the similar title The Country Man and the Snake, is also a source. In this story, a snake lives near a farm. Its presence is tolerated until the farmer’s son treads on the snake and is bitten and killed. In retaliation, the farmer cuts of the snake’s tail. Then the snake goes after the man’s cattle. When the man asks for forgiveness, the snake refuses on the grounds that their mutual injuries are too great. There are other variations, but the theme of enmity between the aggrieved parties remains a constant. 

Poppy or the Snake draws on these narratives to develop a story that explores the themes of guilt, blame, responsibility, the conventions of hospitality, and the archetypal nature of human and snake. The traditional moral of one of the Aesopian pretexts, that "injuries may be forgiven, but not forgotten", is upheld through the snake’s betrayal, but as in their other retellings, Toni and Slade Morrison invite readers to question the tidiness of this conclusion. Ultimately, the story shows that paying attention, and being prepared, are important life skills. The book also encourages young readers to recognise the subtleties of language and how easy it is to jump to conclusions about what people say and mean. The snake never promises not to bite Poppy, but it is natural to assume that that he did. 

Lemaitre’s illustrations convey the Deep South setting through the representation of Poppy’s humble cabin on the edge of the bayou. There are alligators in the water and armadillos in the forest. The book draws upon the oral storytelling tradition of African American culture. This locates the book within Morrison’s oevre, underscored by other intertextual details, such as the presence of a copy of Tar Baby (1981) in Poppy’s cabin. The frame narrative is presented in typeset text, while Poppy’s story is handwritten, helping to convey its more intimate, casual tone. Poppy and his grandson are depicted as black American, and the snake speaks with the vocabulary and inflection of black American slang. The speech bubbles and other features of the comic book format, which varies from pages with a single frame to those which multiple panels, aims to engage young readers. The book also invites re-readings, as the pictures reveal much that is left implicit within the written text. Readers who are familiar with the final twist can revisit the story with the benefit of hindsight. Poppy’s facial expressions hint at his distrust of the snake even as he entertains him in his cabin, and the pages which show his trip to town leave space for his acquisition of the serum, though they do not show its acquisition. 

The character of the boy Nate is a natural focus for reader identification. His revelations to his grandfather about his ambivalence about school, and the criticisms of his parents, add texture to the narrative. His response to his Poppy’s story is not revealed, but the final illustration, which shows him watching with admiration as Poppy plays harmonica, promotes the power of intergenerational bonds, family traditions, and the joy of music and other creative pursuits.

Ferguson, Rebecca, "Of snakes and men: Toni and Slade Morrison's and Pascal Lemaitre's adaptations of Aesop in Who's Got Game?", MELUS 36. 2 (2011): 53+.