Shh! We Have a Plan

This is the third picture book from award-winning illustrator, Chris Haughton. It tells the story of a beautiful bird and some people with a cunning plan which fails over and over again. The plot is simple – four friends (one of whom is very little) are out for a walk when suddenly they see a beautiful bird sitting high up in a tree. The little person tries to attract the bird by talking to it, only to be hushed by his bigger, wiser friends, who devise an alternative plan to net the bird. Plan after plan hilariously fails, until the little person attracts a huge flock of birds simply by offering them food. The big people still don’t learn their lesson though!

The author tries, as much as possible, to tell stories through image, created in this book by collage. It contains just 103 words, many of which are repeated. Inspired initially by the chase and catch scenarios of Road Runner cartoons, Haughton makes deliberate use of each double page spread to create space for the characters to make the same mistakes over and over again. The repetition makes the book particularly suitable for sharing with young children, who will soon learn the words and join in with the story.

This is a book which will be read, laughed over and enjoyed time after time by the sort of little people who want to talk to birds, not trap them. The dedication contains Albert Einstein’s observation that ‘Peace cannot be kept by force, it can only be achieved by understanding’. A profound truth expressed in the simplest and most effective of ways in this captivating book.