A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Viorst, Judith. 1972. ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY. Ill. by Ray Cruz. New York, NY: Atheneum. ISBN 0689300727
B. PLOT SUMMARY
Told from the point of view of young Alexander, this is a story about having a really bad day, and who hasn’t had one of those? Children will easily relate to this tale of a day when everything goes wrong and all seems askew in one’s world. Alexander just can’t seem to do anything right, and things get worse as the day progresses. Alexander gets so sick of his bad day, he wishes he could run away to Australia. The story captures the young boy’s frustration, anger, hurt, and disappointment with honesty and humor.
C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Though this book was published in 1972, the notion of a bad day is a universal theme that everyone can relate to and empathize with. Children will delight in the familiar routines in a child’s life as portrayed by the black and white illustrations by Ray Cruz. The illustrations are detailed and reveal much to the discerning reader. Even a young child will find a lot to explore visually as each illustration adds to the theme of Alexander having a horrible day and the chaos he experiences in his world as a result. This is effectively captured by the depiction of Alexander’s topsy-turvy bedroom, his facial expressions showing grumpiness, annoyance, frustration, hurt, etc.
The text may appear secondary to the illustrations (which dominate the pages), but Viorst’s writing style complements the illustrations. The text almost appears unobtrusive but clearly conveys Alexander’s emotions and feelings. The sentences tend to be long in places but the meaning is always clear. The humor is apparent in many of the sentences, e.g. “Guess whose mother forgot to put in dessert?” and “I hope the next time you get a double-decker strawberry ice-cream cone the ice cream part falls off the cone part and lands in Australia.” These sentences reveal the author’s ability to look at the world through a child’s eyes and makes her writing easily accessible to children.
The message at the end does not come across as didactic but is very subtly conveyed. As adults we know that bad days don’t always last forever, and running away is not an answer to one’s problems, so how does Alexander learn this? I thought the author did an excellent job addressing this question.
D. AWARDS/ REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
ALA Notable Book
George G. Stone Center Recognition of Merit
Georgia Children’s Book Award
Reading Rainbow Book
"From the moment Alexander wakes up and finds gum in his hair, everthing goes wrong! His brothers both get prizes in their cereal boxes, his best friend demotes him to third-best friend, there are lima beans for dinner, and there is kissing on TV. All kids experience this type of day, and will be glad to find they are not alone! " from www.barnesandnoble.com
E.CONNECTIONS
* A discussion can be led where a teacher/librarian/parent encourages children to share about their ‘bad-day’ experiences and how they coped.
* Teachers can design a unit of study for Language Arts focused on the theme of managing anger/feelings.
*Gather other books illustrated by Ray Cruz and use them as a discussion point on how the illustrator conveys emotions through his work.
* Other books about children coping with feelings (anger/frustration):
Bang. Molly. 1999. WHEN SOPHIE GETS ANGRY, REALLY, REALLY ANGRY. ISBN 0439233267
Everitt, Betsy. 1995. MEAN SOUP. ISBN 0152002278
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