Shh! We Have a Plan is Chris Haughton's cautionary tale about the dangers of bad ideas and over-reaching.
Four un-named characters wearing hats spy a bird and while one of them is interested in greeting the flying creature, the others urge silence, saying that they "have a plan" to catch it. The plans fall apart, of course, each one more ludicrously than the last.
The littlest one never varies in kindness, kindness and stillness which are repaid handsomely by the birds during the course of the story. The hunters, though, they do not fare quite so well, never learning the power of kindness and friendship.
The images are bright and minimal, and carry the story along with ease and interest.
Storytime is the place where I get to make all the goofy mouth noises. This book is an enormous amount of fun to read because there are not so many words to read upside down and backwards (think of me when you next read Dr. Seuss). Also because as a reader, you get to make your voice loud and soft, tense and kind, hopeful and defeated. It's so fun and the kids never don't love it.
The humor in it is the kind of thing that seems to translate well for children. The people who are laughable are, indeed, doing something that is wrong, and that we know is wrong. We know it because an alternative has been presented - one that is kind and quiet and likely to work. All of the plans the taller three characters have involve trapping the bird. Kids are thrilled when they end up falling out of trees, over each other and into water. They gasp at the crowd of birds that surrounds the littlest one whose only attempts have been at gentle friendship.
We can only hope that the three taller characters learn from their friend that saying hello and offering a bite to eat is a much better way to interact with the world than trying always to catch a thing. Simple community building with a good dose of actually funny humor.
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