Navtej Kohli reviews ' Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears'

"Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears by Verna Aardema" A review by Navtej Kohli

Written in a cumulative format this Caldecott award winning African tale, or better say porquoi story tells why mosquitoes buzz in people ears ( for those who don’t know what a porquoi story is, it is a story that explains why something is the way it is).
The story goes like this – A Mosquito says something silly in Iguana’s ears, who in response put sticks into his ears so that he would not hear such foolishness ever again. Now, another animal who got scared to see iguana that way, triggers a chain of chaos and panic roping in one animal after another. It continued until a monkey brings a twist in the tale. In the end, animals figure out the tragedy. They blame the mosquito and gets furious with him. Thus, according to this story mosquitoes buzz in people's ears to ask if everyone is still angry with them.

Book has some excellent illustrations that further extend and elucidate the tale. Each illustration is is made livelier with vivid watercolors and airbrush strokes. Each figure has been purposely outlined with white, to give stained-glass look. Sometimes the print is black on white and, in the endless night, it is white on black. As the animals explain the sequence of events, one part of the illustration shows what they think happened while another part on the same page shows what really happened. The Dillons make comic characters of some of the animals. An antelope, unmentioned in the text, mugs at the viewer on several pages, stealing the scene. A red bird, also unmentioned is on each page and seems to represent the reader there.

Know more about Navtej Kohli

MacGregor Tells the World by Elizabeth McKenzie

MacGregor West is a complete lost soul—eternally between jobs, nursing latent abandonment issues, sponging off his cousin while deciding what happens next in life. When his aunt sends him a shoe box filled with his deceased mother’s memorabilia, he notices that a stack of empty envelopes inside that box bear a San Francisco return address of his mother.

After getting these new clues to the mysterious past, he finds the address. There, at the mansion, instead of answers he finds Carolyn Ware. Both of them get infatuated at the first sight. Carolyn, daughter of literary legend Charles Ware, can confirm the envelopes are her father’s stationery, but can’t comment on their significance. The ensuing love affair between Mac and Carolyn provides greater opportunity for Mac to get to know the Ware family, yet the deeper he probes into a possible correlation between his mother and them, the more elusive both Carolyn and answers become. A poster affixed to Carolyn’s wall that Mac’s mother once designed; a photo of Charles and his famed publishing friend with Mac’s mother in the periphery—these reveal a complicity beneath the family’s elegant, wealthy exterior that they all seem determined to hide.

MacGregor, a gifted short story writer, can create a sense of place in just a few lines. It’s pure pleasure to read a writer who not only get her details correct but chooses such evocative, accessible language to paint a picture, such as when Mac nostalgically surveys his cousin’s Redwood City backyard.

Navtej Kohli Profile on Associated Content & Navtej Kohli, CEO of Granox