Aardema, Verna, Illustrators: Leo Dillion, and Diane Dillion. Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears. New York, NY: First Pied Piper Printing, 1975.
This West African tale takes place in a jungle and answers the question: why mosquitoes buzz in people’s ears. The tale begins with mosquito telling iguana a lie causing iguana to put sticks in its ears to block out the nonsense. As iguana walks through the jungle a snake notices iguana and greets him but iguana does not respond. Snake immediately feels that iguana is planning mischief against him. This assumption quickly sets off a chain reaction and panic through the animals of the jungle. The animals’ panicking ultimately ends with mother owl so distraught she can’t wake the sun. King Lion quickly brings all animals to court to solve why the jungle is in a state of panic. Mosquito listens to the upset animals nearby which leads it to buzz in people’s ears asking if everyone is still angry at it for starting the chaos.
Every page has a stained glass appearance using watercolors and airbrush with each character outlined in white. The illustrations give you a sense of each animal’s personality. Lizard always has a grumpy look, monkey has a wild and troublesome, and mosquito is annoying. The background on each page will tell you whether it is night or day. Another feature to look for is a bird on each page which seems to represent a reader.
This West African tale takes place in a jungle and answers the question: why mosquitoes buzz in people’s ears. The tale begins with mosquito telling iguana a lie causing iguana to put sticks in its ears to block out the nonsense. As iguana walks through the jungle a snake notices iguana and greets him but iguana does not respond. Snake immediately feels that iguana is planning mischief against him. This assumption quickly sets off a chain reaction and panic through the animals of the jungle. The animals’ panicking ultimately ends with mother owl so distraught she can’t wake the sun. King Lion quickly brings all animals to court to solve why the jungle is in a state of panic. Mosquito listens to the upset animals nearby which leads it to buzz in people’s ears asking if everyone is still angry at it for starting the chaos.
Every page has a stained glass appearance using watercolors and airbrush with each character outlined in white. The illustrations give you a sense of each animal’s personality. Lizard always has a grumpy look, monkey has a wild and troublesome, and mosquito is annoying. The background on each page will tell you whether it is night or day. Another feature to look for is a bird on each page which seems to represent a reader.
3 comments:
This book looks really good, plus the writer did get there degree at Michigan State.
This book seems interesting. I will go to read this. Also, it is great to know about the writer who got a degree from Michigan State.
I remember this book from when I was very young. It was a personal favorite and I remember our school librarian thinking incredibly high of the book. I also recall learning about what different book awards were, such as the Caldecott Medal, and this book was an example of a Caldecott winner. This story, if memory serves, was a wonderful work of art and literature.
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