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: Antheneum Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0-689-30072-7

2. Summary

Poor Alexander has a day in which everything goes wrong. He wakes up with gum in his hair; his two older brothers find neat toys in their breakfast cereal, but not him; he doesn't get a window seat in the carpool; things just continue to get worse. Alexander decides that the only solution would be to move to Australia. After many more things go wrong through out the day, Alexander heads for bed. He tells his mom it has been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. His mom tells him that some days are like that--even in Australia.

3. Critical Analysis

Voirst uses descriptive scenes to describe the kind of day Alexander is having – a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. It’s so bad, Alexander keeps using the line, “I think I’ll move to Australia.”, which students will love to join in on while reading aloud. As Alexander’s day just keeps getting worse students will be able to relate to Alexander’s woes. This is the perfect book to relay the message to children that everyone has bad days and we just have to make the best of them.

Ray Cruz’s illustrations are bold and expressive. Cruz uses black and white illustrations featuring a creative use of patterns and crosshatching. This captures Alexander’s mood throughout the story perfectly.

4. Awards and Review Excerpts

- AWARDS -

* SMART Book Award, 2005 Nominee United States

- REVIEW EXCERPTS -

BOOKHIVE review: “A humorous and thoughtful book with realistic line drawings.”

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE review: “Cruz captures the mood of the story in his black and white illustrations, which feature creative use of patterns and crosshatching to compensate for the lack of color.”

MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW review: “Judith Viorst's 30-year-old black-ink-only classic has a better-than-average chance of withstanding the ravages of time, despite its lack of color and dated images (old '70s VW bugs, Mary Tyler Moore-era clothing).”

5. Connections

*Author study on Judith Viorst where students can compare and contrast other “Alexander” books by Viorst such Alexander, Who’s Not (Do you hear me? I mean it!) Going to Move, Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday, and Absolutely Positively Alexander: The Complete Story.

*Share one of your personal bad days with the students, then have the students write about one of their bad days and how it turned out.

*Share other books about bad days such as When Sophie Gets Angry – Really, Really Angry... By Molly Bang or Mean Soup By Betsy Everitt.

*Have the students create a brochure of a place they would like to visit when they are having a bad day. Include in the brochure activities that could be done at that place to make you feel better.