Why Mosquitoes Buzz in Peoples Ears

Aardema, V. (1975). Why mosquitoes buzz in people\'s ears, a west african tale. Puffin.

Mosquitoes, in my opinion are one of the world's most pesky creatures.  Their peskiness is what inspired me to read this tale...I wanted to see why it is that they are so inclined to buzzing in our ears.

Why do mosquitoes buzz in our ears?  This story is one account of why this happens.  Aardema takes us through a series of events to provide an explanation of why mosquitoes ultimately chose humans to tell their secrets to.
   
The rising action in the story is when the mosquito tells an absurd story to the iguana about a farmer digging a yam, bigger than the mosquito.  This makes the iguana place sticks in his ears so he can no longer hear the irrational stories of the mosquito.  The sticks in the iguana's ears then cause an unfortunate series of events that spiral out of control, ultimately leading to the death of an owlet.


The death of the owlet brings us to the climax of the story.  The mother owl is so heartbroken by the death of her baby that she is unable to wake the sun in the morning.

All of the creatures of the animal kingdom become worried following the climax of the story; therefore, the king lion calls for a meeting to find out who is the cause of the sun no longer rising.  The animals discover who is at fault, and then all is good with the owl once the punishment is handed down.  The only problem is...the mosquito was never caught to receive the punishment so now he goes around telling humans of his guilt.

This story would be great to use in almost any classroom to discuss cause and effect relationships!

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