Why mosquitoes buzz in people’s years: A West African tale/ by Aardema V.

A folktale from West Africa about a mosquito who tells lies to iguana and how this lies brings a series of unfortunate events to the animal world. But as in most of folk tales, the good defeats the evil, and justice will shine. The reteller did a great job with the story through the use of rich onomatopoeic language. The text is arranged into poetry-like blocks when the repetitive pattern is introduced. This makes it easy for a child to participate in retelling the cumulative story. The artwork was done through using watercolors applied with airbrush in fine spray and spatter technique. Then, cut-out effects were achieved through cutting the shapes out of vellum and frisket masks at several stages. Indeed, very sophisticated techniques which pay off, as readers will be mesmerized with these captivating and soulful illustrations. The illustrator also played with black and white colors to achieve the effect of a day that never came. When the owl refuses to wake up the sun, the text background changes from white to black and remains so until the very last page. The book won Caldecott Medal in 1975 .Ages: preschoolers- 3d graders.

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Ksenia R