Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears by Verna Aardema

 

Title: Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears

Genre: Traditional Literature

Author: Verna Aardema

Illustrator: Leo and Diane Dillon

Age group: 1st-4th

Summary

This story is the origin story of why mosquitoes buzz in people's ears.  It all started in West African when a Mosquito told an iguana such a huge lie that the iguana did not want to listen to it and plugged his ears so he did not have to hear it.  The iguana goes about his day and then the snake tries to tell him good morning and when the iguana does not answer the snake he assumes he's plotting mischief on him.  So that causes the snake to hide and the nearest hiding place is the rabbit hole so the snake enters.  as the snake enters the rabbit becomes frightened and takes off running in broad daylight.  The cow sees the rabbit running in broad daylight and sound the alarm for danger.  This alarm is heard by the monkey who begins running away from the supposed danger and as he's doing so he steps on a branch.  This branch brakes and falls on a baby owlet killing it.  Mother owl returns to her nest and sees her dead owlet and does not hoot to wake up the sun.  The animals realize that the night has gone on for far too long and so the lion calls an emergency meeting.  There each of the animals go back through the domino chain explaining what happened.  And finally it is know the iguana did not want to cause mischief towards the snake but it was the fault of the mosquito.  The mosquito hid because the rest of the animals chose to punish her now, so the reason she buzzes in people's ears is to ask if everyone's still mad at her and when she gets swatted she also gets the answer to her question.

Evaluation

This book was a huge domino effect that all started with something as small as a mosquito.  From there the chain reaction took off and grew and grew.  I think this could teach children about the concept of cause and effect and how one little thing can turn into an even bigger thing.  On a deeper more thematic level it can show students how quickly a tiny lie, like that of the mosquito, can turn into something as big as the sun not rising so they need to be careful with their words.  Personally I would not usethis in my classroom but I can see how elementary school teachers might.