This book's illustrations and text-heavy print are incongruent to me. The illustrations and the story line is sweet, but the amount of words, either for a child to read or for an adult to read to a child are long. I cannot see my younger students sitting still for the length of this book. Too bad because it seems to be a lovely story about a sweet family.

This one could have been much better.

First the artwork is not that appealing. It seems rushed and repetitive.
Then, the story. It seems rushed as well in the second half. The first half dragged a bit.

The characters did not stand out.

These things usually don't happen with me with picture books. Sadly this didn't work for me.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

I loved this intriguing story, with wacky family dynamics and a clever little protagonist.

Ella’s frustration with her cousins’ bickering is introduced as she talks with her mummy, who tells of how Great Grandad Frank once solved a similar issue with his children. Ella then tries to find an answer from Great Grandad Frank, but keeps getting interrupted. Left only with the encouragement that she is clever enough to figure it out, she sets out to solve her cousins’ quarrels.

The story was perfectly suited to be told through poetry, adding to the anticipation of what might happen next. My only critique would be that at times I found the rhythm to be a little funny.

The characters are well developed in such a short space of time, and you can’t help but want to be part of the family by the end. Ella is such a clever little girl- one to be looked up to- who uses her brain to show her cousins how to be kind. Second to Ella would have to be Great Grandad Frank, a sequel from him is surely called for.

In this book, Ella is determined that nothing will ruin her mum's party, especially not her arguing cousins. She seeks help from her Great-grandfather Frank, but in the end comes up with her own solution. The illustrations are lovely and the realism adds a richness to the text. The rhyme and beats are slightly off meter at times, but nothing that interferes with the story. I would recommend adding this book to school libraries. We need more books with children of color in our classrooms.

Thank you NetGalley and The Ella Riley Group for an e-ARC.

A cute little story about how kids should be nice to each other. Little Ella came up with a plan to show her cousins that they were pretty similar even though they had their differences.
Cute, short, and sweet.

When Ella's cousins Take and Jade starts arguing at her mother's party, Ella knows she must figure out a way to sort them out once and for all.

Oh Ella. She's so sweet and smart. The main thing I enjoyed about this is the fact that none of the adults tried helping her out except for when she asked for help. This allowed the main character to shine and show that kids are able to figure some things out by themselves.

We really enjoyed this book. It has a great story and is really fun to read. The illustrations are fun and really add to the story. We liked the main character and her plan. It is a great wee story for little ones to enjoy.

A sweet tale set at a contemporary family party. I read this book because I was looking for illustrations of a black family, which were absolutely lovely, modern and fresh. However, the rhyming story was quite long and didn't hold my children's attention-a real shame for such a nicely presented book.

This was such a cute book! Lovely illustrations with rhyming lines, this small book was a treat to read. I think kids will like it too!

This was a very cute story about Ella who sets up a plan to stop her cousins fighting at her mum’s party. Lovely story and loved the rhyming.

This was just a really cute and very well written book. The art was super cute and I loved that the whole book rhymed. It was also a slower paced book, so I got to really take my time and enjoy reading it.

This was a cute story with a great message, but it was WAY TOO LONG! The subject matter seems fitting for 3-5 year olds, but I think it may not quite hold their attention for the entirety of the story.

The lesson of the story and the illustrations were great, but this isn't something I would enjoy reading to my kids.

3.5/5 stars

“Ella Has A Plan” by Davina Hamilton is a children’s story about a little game named Ella who is worried that her cousins squabbling may ruin an upcoming family gathering. She comes up with a plan to help diffuse their argument with the help from some of her family members.

I read this book with my two children and we thoroughly enjoyed the rhythm of the story, written in rhyming couplets. The book is perhaps slightly longer than other picture books we would usually read however I don’t believe this is a negative and we enjoyed the anticipation of what was to come next. My children especially loved the illustrations at the end of the book which named every character in the story. I thought this was a lovely tool and something we haven’t seen before in our other favourites. My only criticism would be that I personally think the illustrations of the whole family and their names at the end of the book could have been at the front so we knew in advance who was who however this did not take away from our enjoyment and instead, we just read the book again once we found these images.

Overall, I will rate this book very highly and I would highly recommend to anybody with young children.

I received an e-ARC of this book from Davina Hamilton, and the Ella Riley Group through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This was a cute rhyming story about Ella and how she came up with a plan to stop her cousins from fighting all the time to ensure that her mother’s party goes smoothly.

This was a nice book to read with my son. It had quite a large word count compared to what I would normally expect for a child’s picture book which made it a longer story than I expected.
It followed a great rhyming pattern throughout, although there were just a couple of places that were tricky to fit the rhythm with the rhyme so it would be worth reading through first before reading aloud to an audience.
The story had a good moral theme of Ella trying to help her cousins not to argue and see that they are more alike than they realise but due to the length of the story there was a lot of build up which then, when the plan was executed, it felt like it had been overhyped a bit!
The illustrations are lovely and colourful with positive messages dotted in the background as pictures on the wall. The characters are a multi generational family of African/Caribbean descent so this is an excellent choice to bring some much needed diversity to children’s book shelves. I loved the variety of hairstyles in the illustrations, very modern and true to life.
Overall a nice bedtime story and I rated it 3⭐️

A brilliant children’s book focusing on family, overcoming disagreements, celebrating individuality and tolerance.

I was pleased to find a book with all black characters of all ages, something I think that is important for our children to read. I was startled to read an article on Davina Hamilton’s website were she shared that only 4% of children’s literature featured BAME characters (2017).

The rhythm and rhyme made this a pleasing read, with the pictures complimenting the story, focusing on the character interactions.

I would definitely recommend this to parents and primary school teachers.

Ella Has a Plan is a picture book about a little girl Ella that is worried that her cousins will fight at an upcoming family get together. So she asks her mom and her great grandfather what to do. She comes up with a plan.

The illustrations in this book were sweet and appealing. The story itself was made up of rhyming couplets. Rhyming makes for fun read-alouds. I found the text to be a little too wordy and the story took too long. My son kept drifting away. I liked that the general lesson was about trying to solve problems.

When a children's book follows a rhyme pattern, I really hope it is a good, seamless one. That speaks volumes about the effort and creativity that goes into the work. So Ella Has A Plan lives up to this assessment. It is a bit stretched and can be a bit confusing for a kid, but it would work as a good exercise to start your kid on a longer diet of books.
Overall, loved the diversity and inclusivity of the book.

The story was interesting. I enjoyed the rhyming narrative and colourful illustrations. I liked Ella and her family.

This sweet, gentle story follows Ella's efforts to stop her cousins from constantly bickering. If she is not successful, her mother's party might be ruined! Illustrations portray the families as being of African descent. Other stories follow youngsters from the same extended family.