Judith Viorst’s, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day has won a George G. Stone
Center Recognition of Merit and a Georgia Children’s Book Award.
We have all had that day where we wake up on the ‘wrong side of the bed’ and things just don’t go our way,
and for Alexander, it is just one of those days.
Getting out of bed, he trips on a skateboard and drops his sweater into a sink full of water. At breakfast,
Alexander’s brothers Nick and Anthony reach into their cereal boxes and pull out amazing prizes, while all
Alexander ends up with is cereal.
Then, on the way to school, he doesn’t get the window seat in the carpool. At school, his teacher doesn’t like
his drawing of an invisible castle (which is actually just a blank sheet of paper) and criticizes him for singing
too loud. Then his friend Paul reduces Alexander to third best friend and there is no dessert in his lunch.
After school he goes to the Dentist and Alexander finds out he has a cavity, then the elevator door hurts his
foot and his brother Anthony pushes him into the mud, then his other brother Nick calls him a cry baby for
crying, to top it off, his Mum catches him in the act of punching Nick.
If that wasn’t enough, at the shoe store, they’re sold out of Alexander’s choice of sneakers, so his Mum has to
buy him plain white sneakers, which he’ll refuse to wear.
But things don’t stop there, at Dad’s office; Alexander makes a mess of things when he fools around with everything
there getting to the point where Dad tells him not to pick him up from work anymore.
At home, Alexander’s bad day is far from over. The family has lima beans for dinner, there is kissing on TV, at bath
time the water is too hot, he gets soap in his eyes and he loses a marble down the drain. Then when he gets out of the
bath he has to wear his least favourite pyjamas…and it still doesn’t stop there.
At bedtime, Alexander’s nightlight burns out, he bites his tongue, Nick takes his pillow, and the family cat chooses
to sleep with Anthony.
The book teaches children that everyone has bad days and that there are better ways of dealing with your problems than
just getting upset.
You can find this book in your local bookstore or online at amazon.com
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