This is an African folktale about how the lie of one little mosquito causes so much trouble and why mosquitoes buzz in people's ears today.

I liked the style of the illustrations in this book. The story itself was kind of cute too.

I would use this story along with other stories of this kind in a unit on African folktales. ( )

 The moral is culturally correct and seems easy enough for a child to understand why a mosquito is annoying; and when a mosquito is near due to it's noise that it makes.
I loved the way the pictures were watercolored in a stencil like effect, with black outlines. ( )

Poor Mosquito! It is mosquito’s fault that everything has gone wrong! Mosquito told iguana a lie, so iguana put sticks in his ears and did not hear python calling good morning. Python thought for sure something was wrong, so he hid in rabbits hole, frightening rabbit , who frightened monkey, who ran through the trees & accidentally killed a baby owl. Now mother owl is grieving so that she won’t hooooo the sun up in the morning! Lion calls all the animals together to figure out what happened. Is everyone still angry at mosquito? Yes!  

In this African tale, a mosquito stirs up trouble and another animal ends up accidentally dying. When all of the parties involved in the owlets death are brought before the lion king, it is determined that the mosquito is at fault. Near the end of the book the mosquito buzzes the other animals ears to see how they fell about him.
I loved the artistry in this book. The pictures were done beautifully. The story is about animals but can be about humans as well.
I would use this book to teach students how what they say can affect someone else. I would also use this book to have children describe their favorite African jungle animal.

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears is a West African tale based on a chain of events that ends with a tragedy. Life in the jungle returns to normal, only after the rightful blame is placed on the mosquito.
This is another book that gives us insight into different cultures stories. It also shows what one small lie can sometimes cause.
Have students read and study some of the African animals in this story and share facts they learn. You can also read some American folktales and discuss the differences in cultures.

Great storytelling. ( )

This book won the 1976 Caldecott Medal Award. ( )

Fun story explaining why mosquitoes buzz in people's ears. Interesting to see how all the animals make assumptions about other animals and things spiral out of control.

This is a great example of an African myth because it fills an essential human need to explain the mystery of why mosquitoes buzz in people's ears. The plot of the story has rising action from the introduction as each animal alarms the next. The climax comes when the monkey accidentally kills a baby owl. The rest of the story deals with the conflict resolution and finally, tells why mosquitoes buzz in people's ears.

Media: Airbrushed watercolors, pastels rubbed on by hand, and india ink

In this West African Tale, the authors retell the story of animals who blame each other and then a mosquito for all their fears. The watercolor illustrations are beautiful in this book. Colorful animals adorn each page, and the details will keep kids engaged with each step of the story. The story is repetitious, and that will give younger children the opportunity to speak the story as it goes on. ( )

An annoying mosquito sets off a chain of events in the jungle causing chaos.

This is a good example of a folktale because it is African story that was orally passed down and it tells a story of misunderstanding that dominoed into the ending of why mosquitoes are not liked. Plot: the plot of this is strong because it draws you in by making you want to know what’s going to happen next and then if mother owl is ever going to call the sun again out if it’s always going to be night and whose fault it is. Media: mixed media ( )

Age Appropriateness: Primary
Genre: Traditional Literature
Media: Mixed Media
Characterization: There are many characters in this story. Because there are so many characters they are all flat and static characters. We do not get to know much about them and they do not develop because we only hear a brief little bit about each character and then the story moves on to the next character.
Review: I think this is a good example of Traditional Literature because it tells an entertaining story while teaching a lesson of the importance of communication to children. Animals in an African scene are all irritated with each other and it ends up killing a baby owl. The mother owl is so upset she does not let the sun rise. The mosquito is blamed for the death and that is why mosquitos whisper in people's ears. ( )

GREAT illustrations, great book for the younger children ( )

"Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears:A West African Tale" is a Caldecott medal winner. It is a book about a pesky mosquito who annoys a Iguana. The Iguana puts sticks in his ears in hopes to ignore the mosquito. In turn the python takes offense to the iguana ignoring him and so on and so on down the line this continues. During this story one of the owl's babies are killed. In the end everyone is looking for someone to blame and it turns out that they beleive it is the mosquito's fault and that the mosquito should be killed. The mosquito hears all of this and goes around buzzing in people's ears asking if everyone is still mad at him.

This is a beautifly illustrated book. The illustrator drew the pictures to resemble Africa. There is a large assortment of African animals. The story line is cute as well.

In the classroom, I would ask my students if they could draw their favorite African jungle animal. We would have fun sharing our pictures and explaining to each other why this particular animal was our favorite. ( )

This is a great cumulative story, filled with appropriate sound effects for every animal mentioned.

It does get a little long (reciting long lists of animals will do that), so it might not be best for little-little ones who cannot sit through it.

One thing to note is that this book does have a center where an owlet is accidentally killed and its mother goes into mourning. If you do not feel your child can handle this sort of information, by all means choose another book to read. ( )

At first I thought this book was a little odd, but once I finished reading it, I really liked it. It would be good to read in a classroom because there are good pictures and and it was repetitive so the kids can say it along with you. It also mentioned alot of animals, so you can talk about that in class.

In the beginning a mosquito is tring to talk to an iguana. The iguana does not want to listen and puts sticks in his ears. This starts a huge mess. In the end every animal that was effected has to report to the king lion. In the end the mosquito is blamed for the baby owlet being killed. This story is the reason why mosquitoes buzz around in peoples ears.

I like this book because you wonder what is going to happen with each animal. I didn't think it would be funny in the end and it was.

I would use this book in the classroom when teh mosquitoes start to come out. Mosquitoes are a pest and when the children see a mosquito they will remember this book.

This book is very, very interesting. It is about a group of animals. These animals could easily be subsituted for humans. The book starts out as a simple word spoken and turns into a nightmare. It takes an entire village and a noble leader to make the correction so that everyone will be on the same accord. They blamed each other for there own faults. The illustrations in the book could have been a little more interesting but it did not take away from the storyline. ( )

This book is a funny story about how one little thing sets off many other things to happen. The story is about a mosquito that tells a lie to the iguana and starts a chaotic situation, upsetting many other animals. It is a lesson of how paying attention pays off.
I really didn't like this book. I don't know why I just couldn't stay interested in it. It had cute illustrations, but that's it.
One classroom extension idea I would use would be to have the children get in a circle and whisper to one child and see how the story changes as it goes around the circle, it's funny to see how the story changes. Another idea I would do,would be to have the children come up with their own story of why mosquitoes buzz in our ears.

Cute story! I would use this book in my classroom to help students with author studies, focus on award winning books, and sequencing. The only part I didn't like was when the baby owlet dies. Ok, I didn’t like it when Bambi’s mother dies either! ( )

This book is a multicultural story on why mosquitoes buzz in peoples ears. It has many colorful pictures. Also, the words of the book make animal sounds so it is more life like. A mosquitoe causes a misunderstanding in the forrest and runs away.
I liked the ending of this story. I think the plot could have been a little shorter but if I was younger it probably would have kept my attention. I liked the pictures too because the were brightly colored. Also, I always wondered why mosquitoes buzzed in people's ears. Now I am wondering why they go up people's nose!
In the classroom I could teach a multicultural lesson with this book. Also, I think it would be fun to have my students wonder why things happen and make up short stories about them, like why mosquitoes go up people's nose. ( )

This book is a winner of the Caldecott Award. It explains exactly what the titles entails: why mosquitoes buzz in people’s ears. A mosquito tells an iguana a mouthful of nonsense, annoying the iguana. The iguana puts sticks in his ears so that he cannot hear the mosquito, or anything, for that matter. The actions of the iguana to the mosquito begins a chain reaction throughout the forest, causing Mother Owl not to wake the sun. There is a council meeting as King Lion gets to the root of the problem, the mosquito.

I really enjoyed this book. It is very clever and imaginative. It does have a baby owl die in the story, which may not be suitable for the really young children, but I read it to my daughter and she seemed to like the book. The pictures are beautifully done, too. They are very colorful and big. Last summer, my daughter asked me why the bugs would fly around our heads and not leave us alone and this story answered her question! The author included random sounds in the text, too, which livened the story even more.

This book has a repetitive style of writing, as well. When reading about the council meeting, I would ask the children about which animal startled the next, in order to include participation and exercise their memory. I could ask them to give me their impressions of what noises they think the animals make and draw big pictures of their favorite animal in the story. ( )

This book, which is available in Spanish as well as English, is a great way to introduce an African tale. The illustrations are vibrant and engaging, and the repetitive nature of the text is a powerful way to tell stories. The theme addresses misinterpretations and conflict, which are real life scenarios that both children and adults are able to relate to.

Ah Chaos theory for children. An honest answer = KPAO!