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A review by panda_incognito
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: A West African Tale by Verna Aardema
4.0
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, 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? As long as children can handle the baby animal’s death, this unusual and interesting fable can create rich discussions.
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, 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? As long as children can handle the baby animal’s death, this unusual and interesting fable can create rich discussions.