The Secret Plan

by Julia Sarcone-Roach

Overview

You know how bedtime always gets in the way of fun? Not this time!

Milo and his kittycat neighbors have noticed that bedtime always seems to come just when they are having the most fun. So they hatch a secret let’s fool Mommy-and-Daddy plan and find the “most perfect no bedtime ever place” to have just a little more fun before sleep. Then, a let’s-all-pile-in-together slumber party proves to be the perfect nightcap. Kids will enjoy all the charm of this lovely let’s-not-go-to-bed-yet book—which does end with everyone fast asleep!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780375985508
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	06/27/2012
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	14 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Julia Sarcone-Roach, a Rhode Island School of Design graduate, makes her debut with this delightful twist on bedtime routines.

Editorial Reviews

PreS-Gr 2—Milo the elephant loves playing with his feline neighbors Henry, Hildy, and Harriet, but something always seems to interrupt their fun, especially bedtime. So they try every way they can to get around it. Things don't go so well (though the image of Milo painted to blend into the wallpaper is bound to inspire giggles). At last, they find "the perfect late-night no-bedtime-ever hideout"—the attic, which also happens to be full of neat stuff to play with. But sleep must come to even the most intrepid explorers, and so their night turns into a slumber party, heavy on the slumber. The age-old dilemma of wanting to stay up and play just a bit longer finds a gently humorous treatment in this tale, accompanied by swirly acrylic paintings that evoke dreamy nighttime fantasy.—Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD

School Library Journal

Milo the elephant and his kitten next-door neighbors, Hildy, Henry and Harriet, love to play together. However, their adventures are continually curtailed by calls of "Lunch!", "Dinner!" or, most disagreeably, "Bedtime!" Milo's secret plan engenders lots of hiding, but their parents always find the friends. (It is hard to hide an elephant child.) Hildy remembers Milo's furry monster feet from Halloween. After feigning sleep, Milo dons them, softly padding upstairs to join the kittens in a big, treasure-filled attic. "It was the perfect late-night no-bedtime-ever hideout." They try on hats, study a book on Morse code and sip tea before tiring-with one more plan in store. Sarcone-Roach's brushy, full-bleed acrylics alternate warm and cool colors and provide plenty of humorous detail, including a mouse hidden within each double-page spread. The front endpapers depict 4610 A and B South 6th Street as a faux architectural drawing; the back ones present the Morse code, arrayed like stars around a cross-section of the sleeping house. Sweet fun. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews