This story was brilliantly detailed and thought through. I enjoyed that it rhymed and thought the story it’s self was very engaging. It’s more for an older child as it’s quite long but has a great message.

Thank you Netgalley and The Ella Riley Group for this advanced ebook of Ella Has A Plan.

I read this book with my 8 & 4 year old daughters. My oldest loved the prank that Ella was able to pull off from her plan. The illustrations were great and the main character is very vibrant and great to root for! It was a quick, entertaining read and the way it ended sets it up perfectly for another Ella story.

In Ella Has a Plan, Ella is worried about her cousins who are always fighting and being rude when they play. She talks to her Mom about how to make a plan to avoid this. The solution? Play a big prank.

The illustrations are soft, bright and sweet. I think they fit the story really well.

I don't think this is the best solution to the problem, but it is an amazing one. If an older group of young readers picks this book up, I think they will find it amusing. But, this book is for a younger audience. This doesn't seem like it'd be a great message to tell them. There would have to be some type of discussion with kids after because playing pranks on mean people doesn't solve any problem.

Overall, I think this book can be fun if read in the right context.

Two out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley

This is the second book I've enjoyed by this team of writer Hamilton, and artist Reinoso. Told poetically, this story features Ella, who has a problem in that cousins Taye and Jade just do not seem to be able to get along. The last thing Ella wanted was to have her mom's big day spoiled. She consulted mom about it and mom referred her to great grandad Frank, who had a similar problem many years before and solved it in a highly original manner.

Before she can learn what that solution was, Ella finds herself having to quickly come up with one of her own, which she does, and it works a treat I love a story with a strong female character. Young Adult authors could learn a lot from reading this book! LOL! I commend this for a fun story, sweet text, and engaging illustrations.

Ella Has A Plan is about how Ella comes up with a plan to get her cousins to realize they are similar in some ways and should stick fighting. Some of the rhymes were hard to follow, the rhythm was a bit off, but it was still enjoyable.

I was happy to get the themes of problem solving and conflict management. I loved the beginning and end, but it just gets merky in the middle of trying to tell the story and provide the moral of it.

I enjoyed the illustrations and thought they were perfect for the book. Thank you Net Galley and The Ella Riley Group for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The illustrations are absolutely adorable and attractive for young readers. Unfortunately, there isn't much action in the story. The illustrations generally feature people talking while standing or sitting, which isn't so interesting. The story is unfocused and lacking action. Occasionally the rhyming scheme is off, and that can be a little distracting. I would suggest a rewrite that tightens up the story into something clear and easy for young readers to digest.

This is a good book for kids, as it centers around Ella trying to stop her cousins from bickering and fighting. It's great for teaching problem solving skills. The writing is what you might expect from a kid's book, rather simple, but I was impressed by the consistent rhyming throughout the book. It seems like it would be great to read aloud at storytime or for kids starting to learn how to read.

The illustrations are beautiful and add more excitement to the story.

Overall, a nice, fun book for kids.

The story didn't really make sense and was kinda pointless. No great lesson or feel-good storyline. Nice rhymes and illustrations though.

Ella Has A Plan by Davina Hamilton is a wonderful book about Ella and her problem solving with kindness in order to get her cousins to stop arguing. The illustrations are beautiful, and the rhyming is cute. The amount of text is a tad long for the story, and I feel it could be a bit more concise. The message is great - kindness, curiosity, patience, problem solving. Overall it's a fun story for all ages with an uplifting moral.

Thank you to NetGalley and The Ella Riley Group for the advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

This is a beautifully illustrated children's book about Ella who's worried about her cousins coming to her mum's party because they always argue and fall out.
She thinks of a plan to get them to stop arguing.
This book is in rhyming format, but because there is alot of text, the rhyming format doesnt sit particularly well.
A good book but could have been better.

Ella Has A Plan is a good book for young children. Suitable for children who have a lot of curiosities and this book is good for development of problem solving skills.

The writing is just okay. It is a normal story about how to stop Ella cousins, Taye and Jade from arguing. Ella shows her determination to solve this problem. She has one goal which is she doesn't want anyone to ruin the party and she is so smart. She asked her grandfather to tell her a story on how he came out with a brilliant plan to settle this issues between her aunts. Ella had finally came out with a brilliant plan and solved the issue.

Ella Has A Plan has great illustrations and they are bigger illustrations on every page compare to the text. The writing is just okay. This book is also suitable for parents or teachers to read out loud to the children as it rhymes. Overall, it's a good book to read and it's fun.

Ella is determined to figure out how to keep her cousins from fighting and ruining her mother’s party. This is a cute book with nice illustrations. The story meanders a bit and, in my opinion, would have been served better without the rhyming, but it is a good book to help diversify a collection. It shows a happy multigeneration black family and the engenuity of a little girl.

The illustrations are my favorite part of this book. The storyline is so-so. The rhymes are, at times, forced. cute story, but not earth shattering.

Such an amazing book to have in your home library and/or your classroom. I love these characters because they show diversity in a loving amazing way. Also, this book gives us a sense of a bonded/ caring family, in a diverse home. It warms my hear to see a diverse family unit shed in good light.

Ella Has A Plan tells the story of Ella, who is a conflict mediator without realizing it. Concerned that her argumentative cousins will ruin her mother's big party, Ella seeks out the advice of her great-grandfather. However, Ella learns that she can fix this problem through her own machinations--without ever hearing her great-grandfather's story! Ella Has A Plan has delightful rhyming prose, making it an excellent read-aloud for children. It also has enjoyable illustrations featuring characters of color who all have distinctive hairstyles and manners of dressing; it truly shows an appreciation for the character's culture. Although some of the rhymes seem a bit forced, the overall narrative, text, and illustrations make this an excellent addition to library collections.

This is a rather text-heavy picture book about a little girl who wants to keep her cousins from quarrelling at Mummy's party.

The rhyming text is okay with decent meter for the most part (although you may have to read some lines a few times to get the timing down if you're reading it aloud). The story, however, was just so-so for me. Ella is worried about keeping Taye and Jade from arguing. So she talks to her mother, who tells her that Great Grandad Frank once played a prank to get his kids to stop quarrelling. Ella resolves to ask him, and she does. The problem is that Great Grandad Frank never actually tells the story, and the book ends with Ella wanting to come up with another plan to find out about the prank. Perhaps because her own prank (that she came up with herself) was successful at getting Taye and Jade to stop arguing, Great Grandad Frank's story was deemed unnecessary. But I found that omission kind of unsatisfying, and a bit of an unfair tease.

The pictures are cute, especially when Ella plays her prank with all the kids. At the back, there's a spread showing all the characters in the extended family, clearly labelled with their names. Judging by the name of the publishing company on this one, I'm guessing that these characters are based on real people.

Overall, this isn't bad, but it's a bit long for reading aloud. Some readers will probably also be frustrated by not finding out about Great Grandad Frank's prank. I know I was.

A very long and superbly sustained poem for the young reader, but that's not the whole story about this book. On the plus side it shows family life with everyone a person of colour, and that a young girl can win the day when two permanently bickering cousins she fears are going to upset her mother's birthday party get bested. But at the same time – production-wise, the font might be small for the intended audience this is pitched at; poetically thinking we get a lot of the couplets' endings repeated, meaning fewer original rhymes are actually on the pages; and narratively, the whole thing goes off on a tangent for no reason with the girl's older relative's anecdote going nowhere, and her 'solution' to her problem is really on the pathetic side. Two and a half stars for this – it's worth sharing, but will probably be forgotten about before it's back at the library.