Visual Literacy Project

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears

Brianna Bell

TL 307
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears

Retold by Verna Aardema

Illustrated by Leo and Dian Dillon

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears is about a mosquito who told a lie to his

iguana friend. This set off a chain reaction from animal to animal after the iguana

accidently ignored his snake friend, after hearing the lie from the mosquito. After one of

the baby owlets was killed in the trees in result of this, all the animals gathered to get to

the bottom of the situation and in conclusion blamed the mosquito. Mosquito had to live

with a guilty conscious and always goes up to ears whining “is everyone still mad at me?”

This book won the Caldecott Children’s Book Award in 1976. The illustrations are bright

and full of vibrant colors, intricate designs and patterns, and they portray an African

vibe encompassing the West African culture.

This is a great picture book because the illustrations are colorful, they have an

African vibe, and they are full of intricate designs and shapes. The illustrations bring the

story to life and grab the readers’ attention with their uniqueness. The colors the

illustrators used are bright and vibrant as is typical in African culture. There is a part in

the book where the sun does not come up so the background is all black and the animals

still pop off the page with their color. I think it is great that the African culture can be

seen in this book. It is a tale from West Africa and the book would be great to use with

ELL students.

For the poster I created, I chose to use bright vibrant colors as seen in the book.

The illustrations in the book were either paints or paper cut outs, it was difficult to tell.
But I emulated the cutout look and used tissue paper and regular paper to create this

look. I chose the scene in the book where the mosquito is buzzing in a person’s ear

asking “is everyone still mad at me?” It still prompts the question why do mosquitos

buzz in people’s ears?, and it will make the reader want to know why the mosquito keeps

asking “is everyone still mad at me?” I also kept the poster simple because the book

reflected simple and clean lines in the illustrations and I wanted that to also be reflected.

Why Mosquitos Buzz in People’s Ears won a Caldecott’s Children’s Book Award

in 1976. Based on the criteria to win the award, the books’ illustrations meet all criteria.

The illustrations are excellently executed in a unique artistic technique by Leo and

Diane Dillon. The pictures show interpretation of the story, theme and concept. Few

words would be necessary to understand the book just through the illustrations. The

artistic style is very appropriate for the African tale and the African culture can be seen

throughout the book by the colors, patterns, and animals. From the illustrations, the

reader can also see the delineation of plot, and get a sense of mood and setting. And

finally, this is a great children’s book. As an adult, I was thoroughly intrigued by the

illustrations and knowing this is for a child audience the illustrations are wonderful.

Overall, Why Mosquitos Buzz in People’s Ears is a great children’s picture book.

The illustrations are bright, colorful, intricate, and represent West African culture. They

also support and bring the text to life. My poster represents this book with bright colors,

intricate patterns, and simple lines, as seen all throughout the book. This book fully

encompasses the Caldecott Award criteria and I can easily see why the book won an

Award.
The Other Picture Books:

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend, by Dan Santant. Little, Brown.
(2015)

Beekle is an imaginary friend living in a world with other imaginary friends

waiting to be imagined by a child. Beekle, a white puffy character with a gold crown,
waited and waited but was never imagined by a child. Determined, Beekle went on an
adventure to the real world to find his friend. The city was scary at first but Beekle found
his way to a park and met the perfect friend. The illustrations are bright, colorful, and
engaging. The illustrations help convey the adventure this imaginary friend went on. In
the beginning the colors are bright and fun and the imaginary world seems happy, and
when Beekle comes to the real world, the colors become dark, gray, and bland.

Kitten’s First Full Moon, by Kevin Henkes. Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins Publisher

(2005)

In this story, a kitten sees a full moon for the first time but thinks the moon is a
big bowl of milk in the sky. The kitten started going toward it but could never get close
enough. It thought the moon’s reflection in a pond was another big bowl of milk and
jumped in. The kitten gave up and went back home to find a bowl of milk waiting just for
her on the front step, like it always is. The illustrations show the cat’s curiosity and
determination to get her bowl of milk in the middle of the night. And they also show
how happy and content she is when returns home to her own bowl of milk. The
illustrations show the whole story and what emotions the kitten is feeling.

Officer Buckle and Gloria, by Peggy Rathmann. Putnam. (1996)

Officer Buckle and Gloria are a police officer and dog duo who are all about
safety. Officer Buckle began giving speeches on his safety tips with Gloria. Unknown to
officer Buckle, Gloria would act out the safety tips behind him on stage and would
capture the crowds’ attention. Officer Buckle thought the crowd was interested in safety
and became mad when he saw a recording of him and Gloria on TV. However, Officer
Buckle soon returned to giving safety speeches with Gloria. The illustrations in this book
are fun, colorful, depict the story well, and are ironic. I enjoyed looking at the pictures in
this book. The pictures portray the text well enough, that not much text is needed to
support it.

The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg. Houghton Mifflin. (1986)

This is a story about a train that comes through town on Christmas eve where
children get on and ride to the north pole. At the pole, one child is chosen to receive
Santa’s first gift of Christmas. The boy asked for a bell off Santa’s sleigh. This bell could
only be heard by those who believed. The bell was quiet for all others who did not
believe. The illustrations are realistic and portray the story well. They are beautiful
paintings that emulate a photograph and give a calm, stillness feeling to the readers.

Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak. Harper. (1964)

This story is about a young boy who was sent to his bedroom without any dinner
for being in trouble. His room turned into a forest and he entered the land of where the
wild things are. He was the weirdest and wildest thing they had ever saw and the young
boy became the king of the wild things. He upset the wild things when they were hungry
and he quickly had to flee back to his real bedroom, where he found his warm dinner
waiting for him. The illustrations in this book are fun and creative. I think children
would enjoy looking at the wild thing monsters while listening to the story. The
illustrations show the adventure the young boy went on and are explainable.

The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats. Viking. (1963)

A boy wakes up to find fresh snow outside. He plays in it all day and has his fun,
and at the end of the day he returned home to warm food and his mother. When he went
to bed that night he wished for warm, sunny weather, but only woke up to more snow
the next day. So, he grabbed his friend and off they went to play in the snow that day.
The illustrations in this book are good at portraying the story. Children could figure out
what is happening in each picture and know what is going on in the story. I also like
paper cut out type of pictoral style and colors of this book.

Locomotive, by Brian Floca. Simon & Schuster. (2014)

A story about a train and the railroads being built on the frontier. The story talks
about what each person’s job is on the train and how the train moves, what sounds it
makes, and what the passengers do. It is long and detailed and really explains trains.
The illustrations depict the time era well and are realistic. They explain the whole story
and a lot of information could be learned just from looking at the photos.

This Is Not My Hat, by John Klassen. Candlewick. (2013)

This is about a fish who steals a tiny hat from a very large fish. The little fish is
telling the readers it’s thoughts the whole time. It doesn’t think the big fish will notice or
come after it, and it doesn’t think the crab will tell the big fish where the little fish went.
However, everything the little fish thinks won’t happen, ends up happening. The large
fish eventually gets its hat back. I like the style of illustrations in this book. They are fun
and appealing in a whimsical and innocent kind of way. There is not much text in the
book and not much is needed to accompany the pictures.

The Little Island, by Golden MacDonald. Illustrated by Leonard Weisgard. Doubleday.

1947.

There is a little island in the sea that only insects and plants live on. In the
summer, a cat on a boat visited the island and wanted to know its secrets, the cat
learned a secret from a fish that under the water all land is one land. The Cat left on its
boat to return home after learning the secret, the island then experienced a storm,
afterwards all was peaceful again and the island was left quiet and alone. The
illustrations in this book are colorful and help portray the story well. The color of the
cats’ eyes really stood out and gave the cat an almost mysterious look. The pictures
portrayed the story well but needed to be accompanied by the text to be able to fully
understand.

Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China, translated and illustrated by Ed
Young. Philomel. (1990)

Lon Po Po is based in China. A mother leaves her three children overnight to go

take care of their grandmother. That night, a wolf comes disguised as their grandma.
The oldest child figures out it is not truly their grandma and comes up with a clever idea.
This idea draws the wolf outside and three children cleverly kill the wolf. The next day
the mother returns and her three children tell her the story of the Po Po who visited
them the night before. The illustrations in this book are beautiful and depict the story
well and children would be able to easily follow the story through the pictures. The
illustrations look to be water color which is a typical painting form of Asian cultures.

Owl Moon, by Jane Yolen. Illustrated by John Schoennherr. Philomel. (1988)

A boy and his father go out one late winter night to look for owls. This was the
boys first time going with Pa. At first they didn’t find any owls, but they came to a
clearing in the woods where the moonlight perfectly lit the clearing and there, an owl
finally responded to his dad’s owl calls and he got to see an owl with his Pa for the first
time. The illustrations in this book are nice to look at and portray the story well. They
are realistic and full of detail to help enhance the story.

Hey, Al, by Arthur Yorinks. Illustrated by Richard Egielski. Farrar. (1987)

In this story, there is a man and a dog who live in tiny cramped apartment. One
morning a giant bird comes in their window and tells them he can take them somewhere
they can escape and never have to work again. The two met the bird at the window that
evening to be taken away. They went to a floating island high in the sky where they
stayed in peaceful bliss over night. However, when they woke up they found they were
slowly turning into birds. Quickly, they flew off towards home. Getting separated part
way home, but eventually reuniting in the end. The illustrations in this book are fun and
full of emotion, colors, and details. Kids would easily be able to follow the story through
the pictures.

Jumanji, by Chris Van Allsburg. Houghton Mifflin. (1982)

Two children left alone for the day find a board game in the park next to their
house. Once this game was started it could only be finished when someone reached the
golden city. In this game however, animals came to life and started destroying their
whole house. The brother and sister were able to finish the game before their mom and
dad got home. I liked that the illustrations in this book were black and white. They
portrayed the scared and frightful emotion the children had and the mass destruction
such big animals can do. Fun and intriguing and full of detail even thought it was just
black and white.
 References

A. (2014, May 23). Caldecott Medal - Terms and criteria. Retrieved September, 2017,
from
http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/caldecottterms/cal
decottterms

Floca, B. (2014). Locomotive. Simon & Schuster.

Henkes, K. (2005). Kitten’s First Full Moon. Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins

Publisher.

Keats, E. J. (1963). The Snowy Day. Viking.

Klassen, J. (2013). This is Not My Hat. Candlewick

Macdonald, G. (1947). The Little Island. Doubleday.

Rathmann, P. (1996). Officer Buckle and Gloria. Putnam.

Santant, D. (2015). The Adventures if Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend. Little, Brown.

Sendak, M. (1964). Where the Wild Things Are. Harper.

Tunnell, M. O., Jacobs, J. S., Young, T. A., & Bryan, G. (2016). Children’s literature,
briefly. 6th Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall.

Van Allsburg, C. (1986). The Polar Express. Houghton Mifflin.

Van Allsburg, C. (1982). Jumanji. Houghton Mifflin.

Yolen, J. (1988). Owl Moon. Philomel.

Yorinks, A. (1987). Hey, Al. Farrar.

Young, E. (1990). Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China. Philomel.