Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears

Aardema, V. (1975). Why mosquitoes buzz in people’s ears. New York, NY: Dial Books

            Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears is a West African Tale retold by Verna Aardema.  One morning a mosquito tries to talk to an iguana.  The iguana is not interested in hearing such nonsense, so he places two sticks in his ears and walks off.  While walking with sticks in his ears, iguana passes by a python.  The python is upset because the iguana will not say “good morning”.  He then thinks the iguana is plotting against him and hides in a rabbit hole.  Due to the lack of communication and jumping to conclusions a chain of events is set into motion that will cause other animals confusion and pain.  The events lead to an explanation as to why mosquitoes buzz in people’s ears. 

            Aardema does an excellent job retelling this pourquoi folktale from West Africa. This story fits into the category pourquoi tale because of the explanation of a phenomenon of nature.  Like many traditional literature selections the plot for Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears is short and simple.  Mosquito tries to talk to iguana, but the iguana is not interested which unintentionally sets off a series of events that leads to an explanation as to why indeed mosquitoes buzz in people’s ears.. The reader does not get a lot of back information about the flat characters.  Mosquito’s character helps develop the plot but is not described fully and is seen as bad.  Most of traditional literature has an unimportant and vague setting and this book is no different.  The story begins with “One morning” and although it is not described thanks to the illustrations we can assume it is outside.  The theme is subtle and is not expressed in an obvious way. The theme, in my opinion, is to not jump to conclusions and get the full story.  The animals reacted to a previous animal’s action before finding out what was going on.  Since they jumped to conclusions and acted before finding out the facts a devastating thing happened to Owl and the other animals suffered because of it. 

             Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears is a 1976 Caldecott Award winning picture book illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon.  This book made history because Leo Dillon was the first African-American illustrator to win this award.  The illustrations are of high quality and help tell the story.  Several different types of media, watercolors, pastels, ink and cut-outs, were used to create the illustrations. 

            The targeted audience is primary school aged students but I think all elementary school students would enjoy this story.  Young students always have “why” questions and want to know why things are the way they are.  Reading this book reminded me of a student I had in one of my first grade classes.  He wanted to know about EVERYTHING, from why dogs bark to why we had two legs and arms.  This book would be an excellent introduction to a great discussion and writing prompt.  The BIG questions to ask:

• Why did the other animals blame mosquito for the events that occurred in the story?
• Have you ever jumped to a conclusion like the animals in the story? What happened?