Ghana-Da'S Bizarre Narratives Draw Upon Science, History And Geography To Conjure Up Exotic Locales, Other Worlds And Peoples, Their Habits, Lifestyles And Languages. Mosquito And Other Stories Brings Together Twelve Of Premendra Mitra&Rsquo;S Most Popular Ghana-Da Tales. These Stories Within Stories, Told In First Person By One Of The Denizens Of The Mess Hall, Straddle The Thin Line Between Make-Believe And Truth. Ghana-Da&Rsquo;S Bizarre Narratives Draw Upon Science, History And Geography To Conjure Up Exotic Locales, Other Worlds And Peoples, Their Habits, Lifestyles And Languages. In &Lsquo;Mosquito&Rsquo; Ghana-Da Saves Mankind From A New And Deadly Breed Of The Insect; In &Lsquo;Pebble&Rsquo; We Find Him Trading In Sandalwood In The New Hebrides; &Lsquo;Glass&Rsquo; And &Lsquo;Duck&Rsquo; Explore Nuclear Science; In &Lsquo;Hole&Rsquo; He Tells His Spellbound Audience About The Fourth Dimension; And In &Lsquo;Hat&Rsquo; He Is Dragged Over Mount Everest By A Runaway Yeti. And That&Rsquo;S Just The Beginning&Hellip; These Accounts Of Travel And Heroism, Born Of Wild Imagination And Sound Knowledge, Make The Teller And His Tales Simply Irresistible.

Ghana-da's bizarre narratives draw upon science, history and geography to conjure up exotic locales, other worlds and peoples, their habits, lifestyles and languages. Mosquito and Other Stories brings together twelve of Premendra Mitra's most popular Ghana-da tales. These stories within stories, told in first person by one of the denizens of the mess hall, straddle the thin line between make-believe and truth. Ghana-da's bizarre narratives draw upon science, history and geography to conjure up exotic locales, other worlds and peoples, their habits, lifestyles and languages. In 'Mosquito' Ghana-da saves mankind from a new and deadly breed of the insect; in 'Pebble' we find him trading in sandalwood in the New Hebrides; 'Glass' and 'Duck' explore nuclear science; in 'Hole' he tells his spellbound audience about the Fourth Dimension; and in 'Hat' he is dragged over Mount Everest by a runaway yeti. And that's just the beginning. These accounts of travel and heroism, born of wild imagination and sound knowledge, make the teller and his tales simply irresistible.

**The instant New York Times bestseller.** *An international bestseller.* Finalist for the Lane Anderson Award Finalist for the RBC Taylor Award “Hugely impressive, a major work.”—NPR A pioneering and groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction that offers a dramatic new perspective on the history of humankind, showing how through millennia, the mosquito has been the single most powerful force in determining humanity’s fate Why was gin and tonic the cocktail of choice for British colonists in India and Africa? What does Starbucks have to thank for its global domination? What has protected the lives of popes for millennia? Why did Scotland surrender its sovereignty to England? What was George Washington's secret weapon during the American Revolution? The answer to all these questions, and many more, is the mosquito. Across our planet since the dawn of humankind, this nefarious pest, roughly the size and weight of a grape seed, has been at the frontlines of history as the grim reaper, the harvester of human populations, and the ultimate agent of historical change. As the mosquito transformed the landscapes of civilization, humans were unwittingly required to respond to its piercing impact and universal projection of power. The mosquito has determined the fates of empires and nations, razed and crippled economies, and decided the outcome of pivotal wars, killing nearly half of humanity along the way. She (only females bite) has dispatched an estimated 52 billion people from a total of 108 billion throughout our relatively brief existence. As the greatest purveyor of extermination we have ever known, she has played a greater role in shaping our human story than any other living thing with which we share our global village. Imagine for a moment a world without deadly mosquitoes, or any mosquitoes, for that matter? Our history and the world we know, or think we know, would be completely unrecognizable. Driven by surprising insights and fast-paced storytelling, The Mosquito is the extraordinary untold story of the mosquito’s reign through human history and her indelible impact on our modern world order.

"In this Caldecott Medal winner, Mosquito tells a story that causes a jungle disaster. "Elegance has become the Dillons' hallmark. . . . Matching the art is Aardema's uniquely onomatopoeic text . . . An impressive showpiece." -Booklist, starred review. Winner of Caldecott Medal in 1976 and the Brooklyn Art Books for Children Award in 1977.

This book includes a glossary of supernatural creatures that commonly appear in the stories and dances of Northwest Coast Indigenous People.

Accompanied by quirky line drawings by Spanish illustrator Erica Salcedo, this is a gently humorous and remarkably informative nature-adventure story about an unlikely pointy-nosed hero with big dreams and an even bigger heart. After he nearly drowns in a parking-lot puddle, Dinnn Needles is fearful of many things, including flying. When his four hundred siblings swarm off without him, he finds time to dream —about family stories, a lost brother, adventure in The Wild and, above all, how to be cool. At school in an abandoned air-conditioner, Dinnn learns about the deadly Pondhawk dragonfly and other dangers that lie beyond his home under a drive-in theater screen. But Dinnn never really takes to city life. Lonely and left out, he is filled with an unexplained longing. He sips spilled cola from abandoned pop cans, but it is not as tasty as flower nectar. He tries to make friends with the local street mosquitoes, but that just lands him in a sewer filled with spiders and water snakes. He hears about the red mini-van that brought his parents together and wonders about his extended family in the country. He even finds a great black jacket in a roadside ditch, but it doesn’t make him cool. And then one day, as fate would have it, the red mini-van reappears, giving Dinnn a chance to visit to his relatives in The Wild, where new perils await an inexperienced city mosquito — being struck by a raindrop, zapped by a porch light or snapped up by a hungry fish at dusk. But in the end Dinnn discovers that being cool is a matter of what you do, especially for one’s friends and family, including two new brothers. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.3 Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events