I really like this for story time because it's told mostly by asking questions that all have the same answer: Ella, of course. This is a story about having a comfort object. For more kids, it's a blanket or stuffed animal, but Ella is attached to an umbrella. This presents a number of problems, most of all that Ella has a dance recital and she's got to find a creative way to take her umbrella onstage with her. It's got a great ending. ( )

Ella is a problem solver and she can fix or put most any problem to right, until......... her birthday, when she opens a long skinny box from her Gramma. In the box is an umbrella which makes a wonderful "WHOOSH, Click" sound when she opens it. And open it she does, every-single-chance-she-gets. Thus Ella goes from a problem solver to a problem causer.....

Ella refuses to put that umbrella away and needless to say it causes problems at the rehearsal for her dance recital.... But Ella is undaunted and come up with a most clever solution for use of her umbrella.

A very delightful story with colorful well rendered pictures. ( )

This book is about Ella, a precocious little problem-solver. When she receives an umbrella as a gift, she becomes more of a problem-maker than a problem-solver. When told that she canot bring her beloved umbrella to her dance recital, she comes up with a unique solution. ( )

When Ella is banned from bringing her umbrella to the dance recital, she comes up with an ingeniuos solution to the problem. ( )