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

Written by: Judith Viorst 

Illustrated by: Ray Cruz

Grade Level: K - 2

Have you ever had a day where nothing seems to go right? Do you get frustrated when things don’t go the way you would have hoped for them to? Well, so does Alexander in the book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, in fact, he gets so frustrated that he wants to move away to Australia! But his mother tells him that everyone has bad days like this sometimes, even in Australia. Read to find out what makes Alexander’s day so terrible; his attitude is sure to make you laugh! 

This story begins with Alexander telling us why his morning starts off on the wrong foot. Alexander takes us through his entire day naming off everything that goes wrong and why. Some reasons for Alexander’s bad day, according to him, are his family. Alexander is the youngest of three boys. He has a mother and a father, and two older brothers, Anthony and Nick. This is a funny story about a young boy exaggerates why his day is going more and more downhill as the day progresses. This book demonstrates how everyone has bad days and that sometimes it is easy to turn every part of your day into something negative. If your day started like Alexander’s, how would you change it for the better?

I feel that the illustrations are important for the mood that the main character is trying to convey. The illustrations are in black and white, which sends a kind of dreary feel; whereas colorful illustrations reveal happiness and joy and that is just not how Alexander is feeling. However, the color on the cover page of the book gives the reader enough imagery to visualize Alexander’s physical traits and what the colors of his room look like. The colors on the cover page are simple, primary colors. The cover page consists of red, yellow, and blue and other variations of those colors such as a dark pink, and a dark purple. There are two brown items on the cover page; I feel as though the illustrator wants to draw our attention to the blues, reds, and yellows foremost.  On the cover, the illustrator kept Alexander’s face black and white without any other color except for his hair. I wonder if the illustration wants the readers to clue in to Alexander’s facial expression on the cover page and compare it throughout the book. From the cover, to the entire book, Alexander’s face is the one thing that remains entirely in black and white.

The importance of this book for children’s literature is that it highlights a problem that all children face from day to day. All children face issues that make them have a bad day. Most children have siblings that they do not get along with, especially at a young age because they see them as “annoying”. This is a book that young readers can relate to and make connections with through past and present experiences. I am sure that children can relate to at least one of the scenarios in this book and might also be able to look at it as humorous. This book might give readers the outside viewpoint that they need in order to turn their terrible day around.

I would use this book to create a lesson on families, school life, and positive attitudes. 

I could use this book to teach a lesson about family because according to Alexander, he feels his family is not listening to him or uplifting him in a time of need. I would ask, how could Alexander better gain the attention of his family? Maybe his family does not know he is having a terrible day because it has not been communicated. Communication is important between families and this idea is definitely something can be addressed in the classroom setting.

I would use this book to teach a lesson on school life because Alexander feels that his peers are not being nice to him in class. How could Alexander tell his friends how he feels so that they understand and treat him differently? I would give the students language to talk to their peers about what they are feeling regarding one another, and how and when to approach the conversation in an appropriate manner.

In my pre-practicum setting now, the morning announcements states “whether it is a good day or a bad day, the choice is yours”. This statement has always resonated with me because I truly believe in this. I would use this book to teach children that if their day starts out terrible, it does not need to end terrible, too. There are different ways to turn your day around for the better and we would certainly focus on those in our classroom.

This book would be placed in the realistic fiction section of my classroom library. 

Connection to Common Core State Standards:

MA.7. K With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts).

MA.7. 1 Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

MA.9. 1 Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in stories.

MA.3. 2 Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

MA.5. 2 Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.