Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

1.      BIBLIOGRAPHY

Viorst, Judith. 1972. ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY. Ill. by Ray Cruz. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0-689-30072-7

2.      PLOT SUMMARY

According to young Alexander, today is not going to be a good one. Using humor to alleviate what might otherwise be a gloomy tale about a child’s horrible day, we follow Alexander from the moment he wakes up with gum in his hair, all the way to the moment he lays down to sleep and realizes the cat prefers the company of his brother over him. Throughout it all, Alexander consoles himself with the idea of moving away to Australia where, surely, people don’t have days like this.

3.      CRITCAL ANALYSIS

Moving to Australia never sounded so good! Viorst’s description of poor Alexander’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day is enough to make any 5-year-old want to pack it up and move. Her writing style is such that Alexander seems, at times, to have so many bad things going on at once that he’s rushing to get it out before the next bad thing happens. She accomplishes this by listing several incidences at once with little or no punctuation in between. At other times she uses short sentences as if Alexander’s trying to get a point across and he really wants his reader to pay attention.

Ray Cruz does an excellent job with the illustrations. He uses black and white cross stitch drawings that provide lots of great detail, such as Alexander’s adorable pout, which can be seen on nearly every page of this short but humorously charming book.

4.      REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Review from Common Sense Media: "This book scores high on the reality meter; just about any school-age child has had at least one terrible, horrible day. As a bedtime read for any kid who has just had one of those days, this one's a winner--it's almost guaranteed to chase away the blues."

From Amazon.com Editorial Review: "Judith Viorst flawlessly and humorously captures a child's testy temperament, rendering Alexander sympathetic rather than whiny. Our hero's gum-styled hair and peevish countenance are artfully depicted by Ray Cruz's illustrations."

5.      CONNECTIONS

*Children have bad days, too! Use this book as a lead-in to a discussion about what their bad days have been like and what they think makes them feel better.

*Check out two more ALEXANDER books:

Viorst, Judith. ALEXANDER, WHO USED TO BE RICH LAST SUNDAY. ISBN 1416996214

Viorst, Judith. ALEXANDER, WHO IS NOT (DO YOU HEAR ME? I MEAN IT!) GOING TO MOVE. ISBN 0689820895