Griffin Ondaatje’s tale about a timid young motorcycle-jacket-clad mosquito named Dinnn is a light and entertaining allegory about overcoming fear, being true to yourself, and finding your wings.

The youngest of a brood of 400 (and one) mosquitos born in a puddle in a drive-in movie-theatre parking lot, Dinnn (“His mother decided to spell his name with three Ns. She already had another child named Dinn (with two Ns), and she was tired of thinking up new names”) almost drowns within the first few seconds of his life. After his mother rescues him, he joins his swarm of siblings flying above and is bumped and jostled. Skinny even by mosquito standards, and fearing he will end up doused again, Dinnn decides he would rather walk than fly.

This decision inevitably leads to Dinnn’s being taunted by older mosquitos and largely forgotten by his family. The ridicule intensifies when Dinnn finds a tiny, discarded motorcycle jacket (with “Wasp Brothers” inscribed on the back), which he takes to wearing over his unused wings.

Dinnn is put into a situation that forces him to ditch his jacket and take flight, which allows him to tag along with the rest of his family as they hitch a ride in a minivan to the “wild,” where his mother came from, and where his half-brother still resides.

The transition from the first part of the narrative to the latter sections (after Dinnn learns to fly) is less smooth than it could be. The young bug’s fear of flying is suddenly and easily resolved, and lends a note of finality to the tale. When the story then starts heading in a different direction (with new issues for Dinnn to confront), there is a feeling of disconnection from what has come before. Perhaps a series of linked stories in early-reader format would have been a better way to tackle Dinnn’s problems. As it stands, The Mosquito Brothers, while quirky and entertaining, doesn’t quite come together as a cohesive story.