Verna Aardema author page

Verna Aardema biography

Verna Aardema (1911-2000) was an American children’s author who specialised in retelling traditional folktales, particularly stories originating in Africa. She studied at Michigan State College, graduating in 1934, and worked as a primary school teacher and newspaper correspondent before establishing her career as a children’s writer. Her first collection of stories, Tales from the Story Hat, was published in 1960. She subsequently wrote more than 25 children’s books, several of which were translated into different languages.

Her picture book Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears: A West African Tale was published by Dial Books in 1975, with illustrations by Leo and Diane Dillon. The story follows a mosquito whose actions set off a chain of events involving several animals, ultimately explaining why mosquitoes buzz around people’s ears. The Dillons received the 1976 Caldecott Medal for their illustrations, and the book won the Brooklyn Art Books for Children Award in 1977.

Aardema collaborated again with Leo and Diane Dillon on Who’s in Rabbit’s House? A Masai Tale, published by Dial Press in 1977. Presented as a play, the story follows a rabbit whose home has been occupied by a mysterious creature that frightens the other animals. The book was selected as a 1977 School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and received a Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1978. Another collaboration with the Dillons, Behind the Back of the Mountain, was also selected as an American Library Association Notable Children’s Book.

Her other titles include Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain: A Nandi Tale, illustrated by Beatriz Vidal and published by Dial Books for Young Readers in 1981. Based on an East African folktale, the book uses cumulative rhyme to tell how a herdsman named Ki-pat brings rain to the drought-stricken Kapiti Plain.