ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY by Judith Viorst Book Review

1.      BIBLIOGRAPHY

Viorst, Judith. 1972. ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY. Ill. by Ray Cruz. New York, NY: Aladdin Paperbacks. ISBN 0689711735

2.  PLOT SUMMARY

In this very realistic picture book, Judith Viorst takes the reader through Alexander’s terrible day. As he wakes up, Alexander realizes he fell asleep with gum in his mouth, which is now in his hair. From there, his day only continues to get worse. Not only does his mother forget to put a dessert in his lunch, but the dentist finds a cavity in only him and at the shoe store, everyone finds the exact shoes they wished for except for Alexander. All throughout the story, Alexander expresses his wishes to move to Australia to escape these horrible events. However, in the end, his mom consoles him by saying that some days are just bad, even in Australia.

3.      CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Viorst’s writing sounds just like it would be coming from a frustrated, young child’s mouth. She creates her own sense of style by ignoring many conventions of writing. Many times, we can hear Alexander rambling on in a complaining manner, without stopping to catch a breath, through her long, unpunctuated sentences. Viorst does an excellent job of creating a convincing Alexander who is having a horrible day. Children, even those having a bad day, can not help but laugh at poor Alexander and all of the many mishaps he encounters in a short period.

Ray Cruz’s monochrome illustrations help set the mood of the story. The lack of color helps to force the reader to keep a saddened, mellow tone. Even though his brothers, parents and friends all have neatly groomed hair, Alexander is always portrayed with wild, out of control hair. This helps the reader to see that he is just a mess in every aspect of the word. At his worse moments, Alexander is the only object illustrated on a page set against a complete white background. This shows his feelings of being all alone in the world.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Amazon.com Review – “Judith Viorst flawlessly and humorously captures a child's testy temperament, rendering Alexander sympathetic rather than whiny.”

George G. Stone Center Recognition of Merit

Georgia Children's Book Award

Reading Rainbow Book

5. CONNECTIONS

*Read the poem Life’s Not Been the Same in My Family by Jack Prelutsky. This poem is about how bad life is for the child since his new baby sister was born. Discuss which character is having a worse time and why? To conclude, children could think about a bad day they have had and draw a picture or write about it. When finished, the children could share their stories or illustrations.

*The teacher can check for student comprehension by having the students retell the story in comic strip form and/or act it out. Students might be required to include at least 5 scenes from the story, including a strong beginning, middle and end.

*Other books portraying children that think they are mistreated:

Polacco, Patricia. MY ROTTEN REDHEADED OLDER BROTHER. ISBN 0689820364

Blume, Judy. THE PAIN AND THE GREAT ONE. ISBN 0440409675