When the iguana ignores the snake as the iguana has sticks in his ears and cannot hear , the snake immediately thinks that the iguana is going to do something mean towards him and goes to hide in a rabbit hole. The snake entering the rabbit hole terrifies the rabbit, so the rabbit runs out and a crow, seeing the rabbit row, starts alarming the monkeys of possible impending danger. A monkey hops onto a dead tree limb, out of fear from the crow's warning, and it breaks, killing a baby owl.
As the mother owl is the one who calls for night to turn into day, and her baby was just killed, she no longer calls for day and it remains dark in the world. The darkness upsets the animals and the king lion calls for a meeting.
Eventually, after speaking with all of the animals involved, the king lion ends up speaking directly with the initial character of the story, the mosquito.
This is a prime example of a folktale because the animals within the story not only talk, but talk to each other and different species. Additionally, the focal point of the story is the owl's ability to make the sun rise, which is certainly a superpower. The author points out on the very last page that this story is a folktale that originates from West Africa. The opening of the story reflects the Anglo-American tradition, starting with "one morning. In the story, the antagonist was the mosquito, who essentially caused all of the chaos.
The theme, reflecting back to how the mosquito's lie cause a domino effect with all of the animals, is to remain truthful and that lies can have major consequences. The plot is rather traditional, running through a sequence before a solution is reached, going through each animal to determine who had frightened them until it came around full circle to the mosquito.
The motif could be king lion, as this is reoccuring in so many children's stories. Also, the idea of a crow flying to deliver a message is rather common. The illustrations in the story were bold and very descriptive. The illustrations paired with the text and sound effects, such as mek mek mek mek as the author describes the way the iguana moves. The tale begins with a mosquito telling an iguana about a farmer digging yams as big as he was.
The iguana thought the story was so ridiculous that he refused to listen any longer and placed sticks in his ears. What happened next was a chain of repercussions that led to the death of an owlet and the sun no longer rising. At first glance, the colorful imagery draws the reader into the story. Simple, yet intricate designs appear throughout the illustrations, giving character and life to nonliving things.
The sun appears in almost every landscape with the figure of a face looking down on the animals as the story continues to progress. Immediately after reading this tale, I started thinking about the importance of perception and this idea that perception is reality.
When iguana ignored the python, python immediately jumped to the conclusion that iguana was out to get him. The trail of consequences that ensued were easily preventable had python never made such an assumption. The tale also touches on the effects of gossiping. The animals tend to jump to conclusions and run with their assumptions, adding on to the stories they've heard and embellishing them as they continue throughout the story. By the end, King Lion is trying to sort out the entire ordeal until he finally gets to the source.
Feb 02, Robb Rugeroni rated it really liked it Shelves: etecweekpicture-books. Aardema, Verna. Pictures by Dillon, Leo and Diane. Some books tell interesting stories, some grab your eye with dazzling illustrations and then there those that are fantastically balanced with both a great story and wonderful artwork like this book. This West African tale in which the animal characters play the telephone game, written with poetic onomatopoeias and colorfully drawn watercolor landscapes, shares its explanation of why mosquitoes buzz in Aardema, Verna.
This West African tale in which the animal characters play the telephone game, written with poetic onomatopoeias and colorfully drawn watercolor landscapes, shares its explanation of why mosquitoes buzz in our ears with the reader as if it were told by a gifted griot in a small village on the savannah plains. Target audience: 4 -7 years of age. Nov 26, Michelle rated it it was amazing Shelves: edu , multi-cultural , instructional-picture-books.
In this West African folk tale, a mosquito's lie makes the iguana grumpy, setting off a chain of events in the jungle that answers the question of why mosquitoes buzz in people's ears.
This book would be great for elementary age children. The author gives each animal a made up sound to mimic their movement or traditional sound. The illustrations are colorful and contribute to the mood and flow of the story. This book could be used in a folk tale unit or as a funny read aloud on a camping trip. T In this West African folk tale, a mosquito's lie makes the iguana grumpy, setting off a chain of events in the jungle that answers the question of why mosquitoes buzz in people's ears.
This book could also be viewed as a cautionary tale of the perils of stretching the truth or lying. Viewing it as a cautionary tale does make it a darker story overall and may be frightening to some children. Apr 20, Makenzie Moore rated it it was amazing Shelves: elmbooks.
This book would be great for grades Not only could the students catch on to the patterns near the middle-end of the story, but they could predict what is going to happen as the mosquito and the rest of the animals make their decisions.
This book is also a great book to teach cause and effect. The animals' actions are the perfect example of "if this, then that", "because of this, this happened. Aug 10, ABC rated it it was ok Recommends it for: kindergarteners. Shelves: caldecott-medal-winner , younger-kids. I got this book when I was a kid, but I didn't care for the illustrations so I don't think I ever read it. Well, approximately twenty years later I have read it to my five year old child, and I still don't like it.
Now, as an adult, I like the pictures. They are not typical cute drawings, but they are interesting. Now I don't care for the story--it's rather boring and involves the death of an owlet and its mourning mother. Worth reading once, but not worth buying.
Luckily our copy is from the li I got this book when I was a kid, but I didn't care for the illustrations so I don't think I ever read it. Luckily our copy is from the library! A great educational book for your children over the preschool age. My 5 yr old loved it. Lots of good information with beautiful pictures that will help keep children engaged. Aardema is wonderful for an addition to a geography or history lesson. And this one is a Caldecott award winner so it's worth the read for the illustrations alone.
A great addition to any children's library. Aug 16, Jeimy rated it it was amazing. African myths feel more like folk tales. This one was very entertaining. Feb 02, Lauren Carew rated it liked it Shelves: traditional-literature. This book answers questions particularly in nature. In this book the animals were trying to figure out how the baby owlet had died. Since this little mosquito caused such a commotion in the town he went away to hide.
I think I could use this book or genre in my future classroom to have students think of a series of events and what each of these events does in the end. There was not just one animal to blame, all of these animals played a key role in finding the answer to their question. This could even be used in a way to teach about that our actions have impacts on people, or what we do could be taken the wrong way or lead to something bad.
Students could relate to a time when they were accused of something or they took something the wrong way. While I was reading, I did notice it did have some more violent aspects, such as an owlet dying and others. This might be hard on young students and I think it is important to know your audience before reading this book. In the article by Tunnel, it explains how people are doing away with traditional literature because they could be too violent or be frightening.
Before reading this book, understand your audience because young kids might be sad or frightened by some content inside the book. Feb 18, Panda Incognito rated it really liked it Shelves: read-in , picture-books , fairy-or-folk-tales-and-legends , nonfiction-juvenile. In this retelling of a traditional African fable, when a mosquito says something foolish to an iguana, the iguana plugs up his ears with sticks. Because he is not listening, he causes a misunderstanding with another animal, and this starts a chain of frustrations and accidents that affect one animal after another.
This picture book has vibrant, colorful illustrations that won the Caldecott Award, and the text is well-written. The story purports to explain why the mosquito is such a hated animal, In this retelling of a traditional African fable, when a mosquito says something foolish to an iguana, the iguana plugs up his ears with sticks. The story purports to explain why the mosquito is such a hated animal, but adults should be aware that one accident kills a baby owl.
A picture shows the mother cradling her dead baby around the other baby owls, and the rest of the story involves her looking for who is truly to blame. This is likely to upset sensitive children, and could be traumatic for a child who has dealt with the death of a sibling.
This story does not communicate an overt moral message, but shows how quickly things go awry when people misunderstand each other. Parents, educators, and librarians can use this with kindergarten and younger elementary students as an introduction to fables and sequential stories, and with older children, they can discuss the moral elements of the tale. Should the animals have blamed the mosquito? How could someone else have stopped this chain of events? What are real-life examples of this kind of blame, and how does it affect other people in the community?
Sep 07, Liberty Williams rated it it was amazing. This book was my favorite read of the week for a few reasons. Illustrators, Diane and Leo Dillon, did an amazing job of catching the eye fo the reader and translating the words into colors and shapes on the background of the pages. Author, Verna Aardema, set a great pace throughout the book and did not rush through any piece of the story unnecessarily, despite the fact that we as readers knew where the story was leading at the start of the resolution.
The author was clear in painting their path This book was my favorite read of the week for a few reasons. But as we know, with high risk comes high reward, and Mother Owl is the one in control when it comes to the resolution of the story and I am proud to report that she is somewhat avenged in her loss. The ending was an exciting twist and gave me a laugh, which will always bode well in my book. Overall, the story is a timeless classic that teaches lessons of respect, honesty, bravery, and kindness, just to name a few.
View all 5 comments. Apr 26, Morgan Jones rated it really liked it Shelves: written-by-african-american-author. This book is about a west African tale about a pesky mosquito. The story tells the tale of how form one animal to another each setting off a chain of events leading to many animals being annoyed or killed. It goes from an iguana to a python to a rabbit to a crowed a monkey to an owlet to a mother owl.
Eventually the king lion calls a meeting to settle everything out. The illustrations are bright and engaging. I gave this book 4 stars because it is a good book that tells an old tale. Although I f This book is about a west African tale about a pesky mosquito. Although I found it slightly difficult to follow the plot with the language and amount plot on each page. It would be a good book to introduce cause and effect to students.
Jun 02, Emmy rated it really liked it Shelves: kid-stuff , folk-and-fairy-tales , caldecott. A well-written and fun little book. The illustrations are beautiful, so it's no wonder that it won the Caldecott for it's year. I liked the repetition in the text as the animals tried to figure out what really happened, although I would have preferred that the story didn't have the sad little tragedy that set everything off.
Sep 10, Stacy rated it really liked it Shelves: children-picture-books , caldecott-medal. We enjoyed this one! Oct 19, Ashlie Fessenden added it. Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears by: Verna Aardema This West African folktale takes readers on a journey of a chain of events that go on and on leading to an unfortunate occurrence. This tale allows the audience to view how the actions of one member of the community could unfavorably affect others. Children's Literature Briefly states that stories with animals as the principal players are referred to as Beast tales; a subgenre of folktales.
This wonderfully illustrated story used this distinct Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears by: Verna Aardema This West African folktale takes readers on a journey of a chain of events that go on and on leading to an unfortunate occurrence. This wonderfully illustrated story used this distinction when telling us the story of the chaos that was spreading through the forest.
Oct 17, Tracie rated it it was amazing. I love the art style and this was a great folktale. I remember we had to make our own folktales in elementary school sort of like this. Between this and the Anansi book I read right before, I'm hardcore wanting to read nothing but African folktales. This one is so cute, especially the illustrations. I'm especially in love with the salty iguana. Oct 24, Patrick Hamill rated it really liked it Shelves: caldecott , picture-storybook , traditional-literature.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The python thinks that the iguana is upset at him and hides in the rabbit hole, scaring the rabbit. The rabbit leaps out of his hole and alerts the crow, whose cry scares the monkey. Because of this very long night, King Lion calls a meeting of all of the animals to understand the root of the problem.
Once they figure out that the mosquito is behind all of the events and decide that she needs to be punished, Mother Owl feels satisfied and calls up the sun. The mosquito, hiding nearby, does not get caught. Is everyone still angry at me? She has told me many stories the people in her village have relayed to her that have been orally passed along for quite some time.
Apparently, in Ghana even today, they have many stories to explain why something is so. These reasons are most times not scientifically correct, but they do get their point across and remain steadfast in the minds of the people. I also appreciated this book for the lesson of cause and effect that it carries. I think that this book portrays this message well with a creative light.
Note about illustrations: Leo and Diane Dillon illustrated this book using pastels, India ink, and watercolor airbrush. Dillon and Dillon also cut out shapes for the illustrations and added them to the pictures using vellum and friskets. The illustrations of this book are full of geometric shapes and bold outlines of various colors. Though the animals are simpler in their pieced together way, this does not take away from their effect.
The animals have big, noticeable expressions throughout the book that readers may relate to, and the colors are big and bright. The animals are personified in a style that matches their personification with the words of the story. The pictures envelop the pages, with the text fitting in nicely in strategic empty spaces. Christopher Johnston of Baltimore, Maryland had already discovered how mosquitoes can hear, almost a hundred years before. He found that they have an organ in their antenna, which was named the Johnston organ after him.
It allows them to recognize the buzz of other mosquitoes. It took other scientists to discover exactly what made the sound. British entomologists A.
By the middle of the 20th Century, scientists had figured out that mosquitoes have special organs to whine or buzz as they fly, that other mosquitoes can hear the noise, and that the buzz of female mosquitoes makes males want to mate with them. They discovered that when males and females flew nearby, they altered the pitch of their buzz to match each other, and if they matched well enough, they mated.
Cornell researchers tried the same experiment with mosquitoes which carry the dangerous disease dengue, and found the same thing. As scientists learn more about why mosquitoes buzz, they may be able to use that knowledge to help keep them from mating. Fewer mosquitoes mean fewer mosquito bites, and fewer diseases being spread. There are a few myths about the mosquitoes you hear buzzing near your ears. But as soon as they land, look out!
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