#540 of 1001 · January 22, 2022

Let us consider Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears—not simply the question, but the book by Verna Aardema and Leo and Diane Dillon. An unlikely concatenation of events begins one morning at a waterhole. A boastful mosquito begins to annoy an iguana, who plugs his ears with sticks and departs. A python, interpreting the lizard’s bizarre behavior as hostile, creeps into a rabbit hole. The rabbit flees in fear, which leads a crow to sound the alarm, causing a monkey to fall into the an owl’s nest, mortally wounding an owlet. Mother Owl, in her grief, cannot bring herself to wake the sun, and so the forest is trapped in eternal darkness. King Lion presides over an inquest, and each animal in the chain blames its predecessor for the disturbance. When the unlikely sequence is traced back to its source, the mosquito is finally identified as the culprit, but she evades capture, and her descendants constantly approach the ears of human beings to ask whether the grudge remains. Aardema peppers her expressive text with distinctive onomatopoeias such as “mek, mek, mek, mek” (the iguana’s footsteps), “wasawusu, wasawusu, wasawusu” (the snake slithering), and “nge, nge, nge” (the lion’s laughter). Husband-and-wife illustrators the Dillons employ a vibrant, eye-popping mixed-media technique, with watercolors airbrushed in both fine spray and large spatter, pastels rubbed on by hand, and india ink. A note for folklore enthusiasts: this West African tale is an etiology, or an explanation for the origin of an object or aspect of nature. #animal #animals #book #books #childrensbooks #fairytalebook #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcover #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #classicchildrensbooks #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks