Why Mosquitos Buzz in People's Ears: A West African Tale / retold by Verna Aardema

    Why Mosquitos Buzz in People's Ears is a pourquoi story based on a West African folktale. The story goes that a mosquito was annoying an iguana one morning, which caused a whole cycle of misfortune to this mythical forest filled with talking animals. Because of the mosquitos foolishness, one of the mothers owls babies died, which caused the mother owl to not wake the sun as she did every morning, so day could not come. It ends with a meeting of all animals. After a long back and forth debate, the mosquito is painted as the villain of the story which is enough for the mother owl to wake the sun and bring day back to the forest. The mosquito on the other hand, heard the whole thing and also had a very guilty conscious, causing her to go around in people's ears asking if everyone is mad at her.

    This is a story that brings to life the beliefs and customs of West African culture. It builds this imaginary world to tell the story of how this natural phenomenon came to be. The characters are memorable and the plot is mysterious and engaging. The illustrations use vivid colors and complex patterns that help to share the culture elements of the story. It is short and simple, as we see in most pourquoi myths (Galda et al., 2016). The characters are animals with human qualities, clever personalities, and some of which could be interpreted as silly and humorous. Without the illustrations, the setting would not be as interpretable, and the story may not come off as engaging to students. The language used is simple and direct, easy for students to understand and comprehend while also encouraging them to think differently and more openly. The plot is also direct, and the story as a whole is very well structured. I feel safe in saying that this is a quality example of a folklore, especially for children who are in any of the K-4 grades or higher!

Possible activities:

Using this story, you could place students into groups and instruct them to create a script using the story. They would then be responsible to identifying characters, setting, props or costume ideas, and they can then perform their script! For students that are younger, you can adapt the activity to the age in which you are teaching and create a script for them, and then assign roles and jobs and they can complete the same activity! This would be a super engaging and fun activity for students to participate in. They can practice reading comprehension, writing skills, and team work. You could also use the story in a poetry lesson! Students could use the storyline as inspiration for writing different variations of poetry and then you could organize a poetry reading where the students would then be able to perform their poetry and showcase their work! 

I am always up for art activities, and so something you could before reading is have students make their own mosquitos out of pom poms, felt, and pipe cleaners! This would be fitting for younger students to work on their fine motor skills and a fun way to introduce the story! You also could do another art activity where after reading students trace an animal from the story, and then make patterns and use different shapes, line techniques, and lots of colors to fill them in! They could use the book as a reference and try to mimic the way the artist drew the illustrations, but put their own twist on it. There are really so many great ideas and activities that you could use this story for! 

Possible questions to ask students:

1. How can we connect this story to what can happen if rumors are spread?
2. What can we learn from the lion in this story and how he handled the conflict?
3. Have you ever had a misunderstanding?
4. What is the cause and effect we see in this tale?
5. How do you think the story would have been different if the iguana didn't put sticks in his ears? What do you think would have happened instead?
6. Do you think it was the mosquitos fault? Is the mosquito a true villain? 

Personal reaction:

This is one of my favorite tales! The illustrations really help bring the story to life and is definitely a very cute read for elementary students to enjoy. It has many elements of what makes up quality folklore and students will be fully absorbed into the story! There is so many opportunities for teaching comprehension and to create fun and interesting extension activities that students will love. It is a great example of a story to use to teach students about myths and folklore, and help students to identify patterns they see in similar works of literature. It is short in length, and language is not too tricky or confusing. It could be great for teaching sequence of events as well, and teaching about literary devices which are used a great deal throughout the whole story. Also there is the culture aspect included as well, students can learn and experience a piece of West African culture as they are participating in an active read aloud, lessons, and activities that pertain to the book! 

References:

Galda, L., Liang, L. A., & Cullinan, B. E. (2016). Literature and the Child. Cengage Learning.

Aardema, V., Dillon, L., & Dillon, D. (2004). Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears: A West African Tale. Puffin/Dial.