Why Mosquitos Buzz in People's Ears

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in people's Ears
by Verma Aardema

Synopsis

Ever wonder why those bothersome mosquitoes won't quit buzzing in your ear? Well this West African folk tale lets us in on why everyone is so angry with those pesky mosquitoes.... One day while drinking from his waterhole, the iguana is visited by the mosquito who tells him a story so outlandish he plugs his ears with sticks to drown out the nonsense. But while the sticks bring peace to the iguana's ears, he doesn't notice the friendly hello of the python snake. Out of confusion the snake runs to hide thinking the iguana is playing a trick on him and in the process sparks an unfortunate series of events that effects all the animals of the forest!

After a horrible accident involving the monkey and a young owlet casts the forest into darkness, an investigation by King Lion is undergone to get to the bottom of the big trouble started by the little mosquito... But will the forest animals live in darkness forever? Will Mother Owl ever bring up the sun? Will the mosquito get what he deserves for starting so much mischief? Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears gives the answers to all these questions in this fun and animated folk tale.

Response

While reading this story I really enjoyed the illustrations of Leo & Diane Dillon that accompanied the writing of Verma Aardema. The pictures, stenciled water colors, used vibrant colors that brought to life the various animal characters of the story. I found the story to be light and funny, with the exception of the owlet being killed by the monkey, while staying true to the style of typical folk tales.

Similar to Tiki-Tiki Tembo by Arlene Mosel, this story told a tale of how today's behaviors were influenced by a single causal change from the past. In Tiki it was falling into a well that caused everyone to give their children short names, in Mosquitoes it was the commotion in the forest caused by the mosquito that had him buzzing in people's ears ever since, asking, "Zeee! Is everyone still angry with me?" Overall I liked this book's elaborate explanation for such an everyday aggravation and I would definitely think to use it in the classroom!

Book Link Activity

The structure of this book, light story-telling with a clear sense of cause-and-effect, coupled with a lot of different characters would lend itself for use in a Readers' Theatre activity. I think students would really enjoy performing this story. With all the personified animal characters and the funny, drawn out reasoning for why mosquitoes annoyingly buzz around people's ears students would enjoy acting this out in a Readers' Theatre.

The book has eight in-story characters: mosquito, iguana, snake, rabbit, crow, monkey, mother owl, and lion, as well as short declarative sentences that could be broken up to allow for multiple narrators. Students would benefit from increased reading opportunity related to this folk tale that gives a rather funny explanation for such an annoying occurrence!

Another idea is to have students create a Simulated Newspaper telling the events of the story. Students could "interview" characters from the story and write articles or weather forecasts according to the events that took place. It would provide students with a creative alternative to demonstrate their understanding of the book.