"Milo the little elephant has great things going on with the kids next door, three kittens named Henry, Hildy, and Harriet. They make tin-can telephones. They build a house of cards, they play forts, and they dig for treasure. But JUST when they're about to uncover the chest full of loot, something intervenes. Something parental. Curses! Just when things are getting good, it's always lunch, or dinner, or even worse - BEDTIME.
They try everything to get around it. But hiding and sneaking aren't enough. They have to come up with a special secret plan. A plan that involves the fuzzy green monster feet from Milo's Halloween costume, and the cozy attic way upstairs.
This plot is VERY appealing to little kids. It has enough tension to keep them on the edge of their seats, but no actual consequences, as befitting a picture book. The details are adorable. The illustrations slyly extend the text, adding extra humor.
The design, especially the text layout, conspires with the other elements to give us tiptoeing, frustration, and being startled. It's almost concrete poetry.
The art, in its swishiness, somehow reminds me of Good Night, Gorilla
. The sweetness, and the bedtime-circumvention plot, is like that too. And when I compare a book to Good Night, Gorilla, that is some of the highest praise I know."That's so cool! Goodnight Gorilla is one of my favorite books! Thank you Paula! And the lovely text layout and book design of The Secret Plan are due to the talented Melissa Nelson.
