Publisher's Synopsis
Ephan is a silly elephant who loves to do silly things. He is forever teasing his friends and playing practical jokes on them, but they aren't always well received. As he is going to bed one night, his mother tells him to prepare for school the next day and teaches him how to tell the time so he'll know when he needs to get there. But when he wakes up far too early the next day he decides to use the time visiting the neighborhood to see what fun he can have.
All of the animals are asleep, but he soon finds ways to be silly at their expense. First he finds his elephant friends Billy and Jilly asleep in their hammock and ties their tails together. Next he sees mice sleeping in a den and ties balloons to their tails. Further along the road, he comes across a sleeping giraffe and twists his neck into a knot. When he sees ants sleeping by the river, he puts them in paper boats and sets them adrift on the river. And finally, the sleeping snakes are put into cardboard boxes.
As he plays each practical joke, he sings very silly songs about the icky ants, messy mice and slithery snakes, while the clock ticks steadily towards the time he needs to be at school. When he finally realizes he's going to be late and scurries home to get ready, the other animals start to wake up and discover their predicament.
One by one the animals realize the only one who could have done any of these things is "Silly Ephan". They are so tired of his silly games they decide to teach him a lesson by being silly themselves. The ants march toward his home, the snakes slither along, the mice follow and so does the giraffe and other elephants until they are all in Ephan's backyard.
Ephan apologizes for playing practical jokes on them and asks them to let him go to school. The animals agree but insist on hugging him. As they hug him, they paint the words "I am silly" on his back. As Ephan rushes to school, the animals laugh at him. At first, he is happy they have forgiven him until one of the birds calls to him "Hi Silly." He is annoyed that his name is not "Silly" and starts to wonder why they all are looking at his back. He turns around and around to look at his back, but he can't see anything.
Finally, he meets his friend Sid who also greets him with "Hi Silly" and explains what is written on his back. Ephan is shocked but realizes it's the reason everyone was laughing at him. Sid washes the paint away with water and tries to hurry Ephan to school, but Ephan knows the time and tells him not to worry because they are right on time.
