A wonderful rhyming story about helping people and getting along with others. The main character is kind, family orientated and a great role model for the children reading the story. There are some lovely moments in the story which children will be able to relate to, such as when the main characters parents say they are proud of her.

While I loved the illustrations and BIPOC characters, I found the story too long and with too many extraneous details

I liked the artwork. And I liked the message. However, the meter and rhyme felt forced sometimes and I found myself glazing over words just to keep the story moving. I felt like the story would have been better served without the meter/rhyme.

Thank you to The Ella Riley Group and NetGalley for the e-copy to read and review!
*Read Now title on NetGalley*

"Ella Has A Plan" is a delightful story about a little girl spreading kindness while at the same time reminding readers to always choose kindness.

Ella is a sweet girl with a big heart. Her solution to the problem - her quarreling cousins - was creative. I liked that Ella looks like me at that age. I wish this book had been around when I was that little.

The cover is adorable and the illustrations very pretty! The art was smooth, colorful and detailed. Each illustration fit perfectly with the text. I loved all the beautiful black hair styles.

This story is told in verse - quatrains in aabb couplets. The rhythm was on point and drew me into the story.

"Ella Has A Plan" is a wonderful picture book I wholeheartedly recommend.

This is a cute story about Ella and her family. She is excited about her mama's party but worries about her cousins fighting. Sure enough, they do start to fight and she comes up with a plan! It is a fun story with great illustrations!

Ella Has A Plan // by Davina Hamilton // illustrated by Elena Reinoso

Ella is so excited for her mama's birthday because her whole family is coming. She loves her mom and has to make sure it is the best day every for her, but she knows her cousins are coming, which might spell out danger. Her cousins are always arguing, which makes the people around them upset and uncomfortable. Will Ella be able to keep them from fighting and ruining her mother's birthday?

Ella Has A Plan is an adorable story about a little girl that just wants her mother to have the best birthday ever! Hamilton tells this story in cute rhymes that keep the story moving along at a quick pace without it feeling rushed. She makes it easy to make this a fun and engaging experience with a young reader and teaches that even with our differences, there can still be many things that we could have in common with an unlikely person in our lives and it is always worth it to try to be friends before you are enemies. Reinoso beautifully accompanies the story with her illustrations!

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a sweet enough story about a young girl, Ella, who desperately wants her cousins to stop fighting. During a family party Ella decides that she needs to come up with a plan to show her cousins that they're more alike than different. She comes up with a silly plan to turn her cousins' tongues blue and it does stop their arguing. The illustrations were sweet and simple and it was lovely to see representation for black families. However, I found the text to be a bit much. Rhyming can be really helpful for younger children to develop their sight word vocabularies, recognize patterns, etc. But the length of this book and relative complexity of its plot made the rhymes feel unnecessary and overworked. For a picture book the text is also quite small on the page which doesn't lend itself well to print awareness. Overall a sweet story.

This story is beautifully written. It’s cleverly mischievous while inspiring young ones to use their minds. Ella’s family is not a typical family, it’s very diverse in age and personality. I would recommend this for every parents personal book collection.

What a lovely story about a little girl who just wants everyone to play and be happy. A heartwarming story. Your little ones will love it

Stunning illustrations paired with a clever rhyming story about Ella solving her cousin's squabbles! The power of family, a plan, and a little prank are on display here. Very cute!

This is a delightful story, told in rhyme, about Ella and how she tries to get her two cousins to stop fighting each other at a family party. It is a very gentle look at family dynamics and how talking about thing can often bring positive results. Especially good with ethnically diverse characters.

Ella’s mum is having a party, but Ella’s worried her cousins will ruin it with their quarelling. She needs a plan.

I loved the pictures, the atmosphere, the extended family and the busy household. The rhyming text moved quite quickly, but I did feel it may have been on the long side for younger children. I’d definitely keep an eye out other titles by Davina Hamilton.

This a really cute picture book, great for younger readers, who will no doubt be inspired by Ella's ingenuity and smart thinking. Its great to see a diverse family here, it would be lovely to see more of Ella's adventures!
Thank you to Net Galley for the free advance e-book copy of this title.

The book is a cute idea. I like that Ella wants to solve her cousins' quarreling because it ruins the good time they could be having. I like that it rhymes, for kids that is really important sometimes and makes the book easier to hear. I did think it went on too long, the audience that it is intended for have a very short attention span and there is not enough action in the story to hold it for that length of time. Cute idea but needs to be shortened and the story needs to be a bit more clear.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was so cute! Thoroughly enjoyable. The lines rhymed and it gave the story a very smooth, rhythmic flow. I really enjoyed reading about Ella and watching her figure out how to help her cousins not fight. The illustrations were good and felt aligned with the text on the page.

Overall, I would recommend this one!

A cute little rhyming story about helping others to see that they're more alike than they think. The plan itself was a little underwhelming, but I LOVED the illustrations and the intent.

First, yes yes yes for a children’s Own Voices book. Picture books with Black children and families and the importance of being written by a Black author is desperately needed in Children’s books. Ella Has a Plan is not just a sweet story about a girl who is worried about her cousins fighting and messing up the party. It celebrates her family’s culture in the food at the party and the music and dancing. You can see the joy, all the celebrations of Black families emerge in the cheerful illustrations. I absolutely loved the family illustrations at the end- each captured the family at different periods. Themes of family and extended family were particularly touching I thought.

The story is written in rhyme and I loved it! The story itself is on the longer side for some children’s books, but it works here with the rhyming and plot line.

Note, I’m not an Own Voices reviewer.

What do you do when your cousins bicker and fight? You hatch a plan to make everything all right!

Today is Mummy's big day, and Ella is not about to let her two cousins ruin it! You see, Taye and Jade like to bicker and argue, mainly about nothing! And they always seem to turn a fun family gathering into something not so fun! But not today! With a little help from Great Grandad Frank and Chef Uncle Ted, Ella is cooking up a sweet plan to put an end to Taye and Jade's nonsense once and for all!

Ella Has a Plan is the adorable sister book to Riley Knows He Can. I love the positive affirmations sprinkled throughout the book, as well as the introduction to all of Ella's family included after the story!

Children will have fun with the rhyming nature of this story, enjoy the amazing illustrations, and learn a helpful lesson or two!

A lovely story addressing the family bonds and disagreements between siblings approached in a fun and child friendly way. The rhyming words sometimes felt a little forced and didn't flow easily when sight reading out loud but in general I loved the whole idea.

I like the cover of this book as its eye catching. This book is about Ella having a plan to get her cousins to be nice to each other. The illustrations are eye catching and the text rhymes which children like however I think its a book that grown ups would read to children as the text seems small and there is lots of it. Thank you for the opportunity to review this book.