Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears- Book Reflection

Aaredema, V., Dillon, L. & Dillon,D. (1975). Why mosquitoes buzz in people's ears. New York: Puffin.

For my traditional book reflection, I chose Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears written by Verna Aaredema and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon. A 1976 winner of the Caldecott Medal, this story derives from the African culture featuring a series of animals who's singular actions are misunderstood and creates a snowball effect of disasters. I enjoyed the repetition, the use of animals, and the colorful illustrations. I think this book would be great for younger elementary students, but you could use it in upper elementary and middle school classrooms as well.  Told as cumulative tale, the story follows the same simple plot, and it all comes together as one giant misunderstanding.  The trouble starts with a mosquito, who shares what is percieved as nonsensical information to an iguana. Not wanting to hear any of it, the grumbles and stuffs sticks into his ears. Not being able to hear, he passes the snake, who misinterprets iguana's actions and now thinks iguana is mad at him. The misconceptions continue amongst the animals, resulting in the accidental death of a young owl who causes his grieving mother to forget to summon the sun, which puts everyone in panic. Aside from the cumulative events, this story could also be considered a pourquoi tale, using the owl to wake up the sun as a means to explain an everyday, scientific phenomena.  This book, filled with bright images, would be great to use as a cause and effect lesson. You could cover/omit the text and have your students retell the cause/effect scenarios in their own words with the illustrations. They may even come up with a different cause/effect story altogether! Outside of the reading classroom, this book could be used a read aloud in a social studies in a unit about Africa or African cultures. An art teacher coud also use the vibrant colors and illustrations as part of lesson.

Some big questions that could be asked include:
  Is it practical to blame all the events on the mosquito? Why do you think mosquitoes buzz around your ears, what are they trying to tell you? How could this story be retold in Kentucky, what animals would be involved?

Common Core Standard Suggestion:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.3 Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).