Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: A West African Tale

This book is a funny story about how one little thing sets off many other things to happen. The story is about a mosquito that tells a lie to the iguana and starts a chaotic situation, upsetting many other animals. It is a lesson of how paying attention pays off.
I really didn't like this book. I don't know why I just couldn't stay interested in it. It had cute illustrations, but that's it.
One classroom extension idea I would use would be to have the children get in a circle and whisper to one child and see how the story changes as it goes around the circle, it's funny to see how the story changes. Another idea I would do,would be to have the children come up with their own story of why mosquitoes buzz in our ears.… (more)

This book is a winner of the Caldecott Award. It explains exactly what the titles entails: why mosquitoes buzz in people’s ears. A mosquito tells an iguana a mouthful of nonsense, annoying the iguana. The iguana puts sticks in his ears so that he cannot hear the mosquito, or anything, for that matter. The actions of the iguana to the mosquito begins a chain reaction throughout the forest, causing Mother Owl not to wake the sun. There is a council meeting as King Lion gets to the root of the problem, the mosquito.

I really enjoyed this book. It is very clever and imaginative. It does have a baby owl die in the story, which may not be suitable for the really young children, but I read it to my daughter and she seemed to like the book. The pictures are beautifully done, too. They are very colorful and big. Last summer, my daughter asked me why the bugs would fly around our heads and not leave us alone and this story answered her question! The author included random sounds in the text, too, which livened the story even more.

This book has a repetitive style of writing, as well. When reading about the council meeting, I would ask the children about which animal startled the next, in order to include participation and exercise their memory. I could ask them to give me their impressions of what noises they think the animals make and draw big pictures of their favorite animal in the story.… (more)

"Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears:A West African Tale" is a Caldecott medal winner. It is a book about a pesky mosquito who annoys a Iguana. The Iguana puts sticks in his ears in hopes to ignore the mosquito. In turn the python takes offense to the iguana ignoring him and so on and so on down the line this continues. During this story one of the owl's babies are killed. In the end everyone is looking for someone to blame and it turns out that they beleive it is the mosquito's fault and that the mosquito should be killed. The mosquito hears all of this and goes around buzzing in people's ears asking if everyone is still mad at him.

This is a beautifly illustrated book. The illustrator drew the pictures to resemble Africa. There is a large assortment of African animals. The story line is cute as well.

In the classroom, I would ask my students if they could draw their favorite African jungle animal. We would have fun sharing our pictures and explaining to each other why this particular animal was our favorite.… (more)

This is a good example of a folktale because it is African story that was orally passed down and it tells a story of misunderstanding that dominoed into the ending of why mosquitoes are not liked. Plot: the plot of this is strong because it draws you in by making you want to know what’s going to happen next and then if mother owl is ever going to call the sun again out if it’s always going to be night and whose fault it is. Media: mixed media… (more)

This book is very, very interesting. It is about a group of animals. These animals could easily be subsituted for humans. The book starts out as a simple word spoken and turns into a nightmare. It takes an entire village and a noble leader to make the correction so that everyone will be on the same accord. They blamed each other for there own faults. The illustrations in the book could have been a little more interesting but it did not take away from the storyline.… (more)

This book is a very interesting Caldecott Award winner. It begins with a mosquito that tells a lie to a grumpy iguana, who places sticks in his ears to avoid hearing any more lies. A series of events leads to the death of an owlett and upsets the mother owl who refuses to call on the sun to bring the day. The lion summons a meeting and all of the animals finally discover that the mosquito caused it all. The mosquito hid to avoid any punishment and today he whines in people's ears.

This book is a very amusing myth about why mosquitoes buzz in people's ears. It was humorous at points and kept me wondering how the story relates to the title. There are also some gloomy moods that arise and therefore makes this book a very well rounded one that hits a number of moods of the reader.

This book could be used when instructing a unit on myths or personification. It will keep the children guessing why mosquitoes buzz in people's ears. It will also help in a situation of blame, since the book bounces from blaming one animal to another.… (more)

In this West African Tale, the authors retell the story of animals who blame each other and then a mosquito for all their fears. The watercolor illustrations are beautiful in this book. Colorful animals adorn each page, and the details will keep kids engaged with each step of the story. The story is repetitious, and that will give younger children the opportunity to speak the story as it goes on.… (more)

This book was a prime example how one tiny thing can snowball into something to big to imagine. The story is about a mosquito who tells a story to an Iguana and starts this wild story going from one animal to another, that ends up With the King Lion asking why the sun has not come out on time.

There are a lot of unique sound effects in this book, for example when the iguana leaves the mosquito he makes a mek, mek, mek, sound or when the snake goes to hide in a rabbit hole he makes a wasawusu, sound. these different sounds add so much to the story.

You could have a lesson about what rumors are and who they can quickly spread. teaching kids to use facts instead of jumping to conclusions can also help them to realize the importance of asking why if they are not sure. Also could be used in lessons about how to write folklore… (more)

In this African tale, a mosquito stirs up trouble and another animal ends up accidentally dying. When all of the parties involved in the owlets death are brought before the lion king, it is determined that the mosquito is at fault. Near the end of the book the mosquito buzzes the other animals ears to see how they fell about him.
I loved the artistry in this book. The pictures were done beautifully. The story is about animals but can be about humans as well.
I would use this book to teach students how what they say can affect someone else. I would also use this book to have children describe their favorite African jungle animal.… (more)

This is a great cumulative story, filled with appropriate sound effects for every animal mentioned.

It does get a little long (reciting long lists of animals will do that), so it might not be best for little-little ones who cannot sit through it.

One thing to note is that this book does have a center where an owlet is accidentally killed and its mother goes into mourning. If you do not feel your child can handle this sort of information, by all means choose another book to read.… (more)

Poor Mosquito! It is mosquito’s fault that everything has gone wrong! Mosquito told iguana a lie, so iguana put sticks in his ears and did not hear python calling good morning. Python thought for sure something was wrong, so he hid in rabbits hole, frightening rabbit , who frightened monkey, who ran through the trees & accidentally killed a baby owl. Now mother owl is grieving so that she won’t hooooo the sun up in the morning! Lion calls all the animals together to figure out what happened. Is everyone still angry at mosquito? Yes!… (more)

WMBiPE = Winner of the Caldecott, 1976. The illustrations by the husband and wife team, Leo and Diane Dillon, delight the reader, capture the reader’s attention, and develop an appreciation and awareness of African tradition and art. Primarily, the pictures establish the setting, define the characters, reinforce and extend the text, provide an interesting aside, and help establish the mood. On the copy right page of Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears the artist method is explained: “The art for this book was prepared in full color using watercolors applied with an airbrush in both fine spray and spatter technique, pastels rubbed on by hand, and india ink. The cut-out effect was achieved by actually cutting the shapes out of vellum and frisket masks at several different stages.” • This picture book can be found as an audio book featuring Emmy award winning storyteller, Bobby Norfolk; is available in Spanish. James Earl Jones narrates an animated movie of this book. The film won the CINE Competition in 1984. Genre: Traditional Fantasy—combining folktale and pour quoi qualities.… (more)

This is a great introduction to African folk tales. It tells the story of a pesky mosquito that lies to an iguana and causes an enormous chain reaction between animals that ends up in the sun not rising the next morning. When all is sorted out in the animal tribunal, the mosquito is found out to be guilty and fiercely criticized. Thus when the mosquito buzzes in ears, he is always asking if everyone is still angry with him.
grade 1-6. group read. wide appeal. positives - great illustrations for group read, golden moral (don't lie)
negative - can be interpreted as too cataclysmic (with owlet dying and mosquito being hated and blamed for everything)… (more)

This story is about a mosquito who tells a tall tale in the iguana’s ear and the iguana ignores the mosquito by plugging his ears up with sticks. Next the python is trying to tell the iguana something and the iguana ignores him as well thinking that the iguana is mad at him. In the story a chain of events happens and causes more problems because the mosquito told a tale that wasn't the truth.

I like this story because I think it is designed to teach the reader a moral that you should not tell tall tales because it causes problems such as in the book when each animal blamed another animal for their actions.

An extension idea for this book would be to play the telephone game where the class sits in a circle and one person tells someone something and then the next and so on. This is a good idea to show that sometimes people may only hear half of the truth.… (more)

This is a great story about mosquitoes. When I got to the end, I had a huge smile on my face because it was such an adorable story. I think any younger child would enjoy listening to this book because of the repetition as the book progresses. I think the kids would like to join in and read the repetitive words along with the reader. Also, the pictures are absolutely amazing. They are so bright and bold.… (more)

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears is a cumulative tale from West African folklore retold by Verna Aardema. As the title denotes, this porquoi tale describes the origins of the mosquitoes buzz beginning when the mosquito lies to a lizard who then puts sticks in his ear, which causes the frightening a series of animals, ending with the death of an owlet whose mother then is too sad to wake the sun. The animals hold court with King Lion and determine that the mosquito is ultimately the responsible party. The mosquito hides to evade punishment, but forever has a guilty conscious, whining in people’s ears, “Zeee! Is everyone still angry at me?” The deceptively simply illustrations evoke West African resist dye textiles and were painstakingly made using frisket cutout shapes of watercolor airbrush, pastels, and India ink on vellum. The meticulous results earned the illustrators, Leo and Diane Dillon, a Caldecott Medal.… (more)