Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
by Judith Viorst
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Book Summary Information
Author: Judith ViorstBrand: Books
Illustrator: Ray Cruz
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1987-07-15
ISBN: 0689711735
Number of pages: 32
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780689711732
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
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Book Reviews of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Book Review: So You Had A Bad Day
Summary: 5 Stars
We all can relate to a bad day. What is the equivalent of this book for an adult?
The Odyssey? Not really. But definitely a bad day. Heracles had a bad day. Let's not forget the act touching off all those labors, even if Hera did trick him. So did the guy in Death of a Salesman but what adult book do you go to to be able to chant with some sass about it, name it and re-enact it in a kind of cathartic drama where you proclaim it to a group of on-looking peers or family or readers as you sort of shout it all out. Top this one. To an Amazon review? That hardly matches as big enough. Or a blog, I can tell you from experience a void of response isn't filling that need. And then you have to write it down? What can you do? Try reading this.
I've been teaching a long time and let me tell you, bad days are very real. In school even under NCLB rigid controls. How is that possible? The mandate gives you the pacing. That should wipe out your humanity , shouldn't it. Maybe the tacher isn't working hard enough, or planning enough. That's what prevents feelings surely. Hum. And they are valid bad days too. How unbelievable this can't be automatized away. Oh yeah, the country is in some bad days right now. Lines are blurring. They told us they knew everything. I recall that because structures were set up allow people to do very mean things to anyone that disagreed or shared a different point of view. What? You remember the days long past when you were treated professionally.
What was unusual once when we were allowed kid's literature was a writer came along, Viorst, and let ideas like this be in her books. It was actually at the time rather shocking and refreshing to see something like a big, bad day ( over a wolf or holiday ) make it into a book as the driver of a story in the way this worked. Rather like Seize the Day for kids you know?
So Alexander gets to hold the day for the class or the reader to "just look at it." Have you ever noticed that seeing another kid's boo-boo at 6 is one of the most status producing, meaningful things? Kids will run across a totally behaviorally managed room to see a cut. Wonder why? Voirst gets that.
I'm careful, reading this one comes out after the day has really announced itself as a true bomb. A day that isn't going to be ok, one where at the best we are stopping some crying, not necessarily the day the hamster dies. More the day when someone moves unexpectedly, another child pukes but no one can pick them up and the office sends them back, the "inspectors" caught you off the "mandate," the sink stops up, two kids got head bumps at recess....you get the idea.... you can make a LIST. And then after reading this book you can turn your bad day into a class or personal writing project. So and so's very bad awful (add some other word's you call adjectives) bad day. Then at another time you can teach opposites and make a very good day version.
This book allows you to be derivative in a way that starts children writing. I appreciate the pattern she used here, adding nightmare after nightmare then recounting the one before it. Say the whole list each additional problem, normally this drives me nuts, but for 6 year olds it grasps something interesting to them. Repetition. And it kind of yells too.Provides a way to manage something. Make a list. Shout it out. Tell it. Repeat it. Speak your truth. (Of course I think that requires a common humanity and others compassion but I'm not teaching that I guess. I like to think we might. ) It's actually what drives 99% of adults-repetition compulsions- but adults like to think it ain't so....opps, off topic.
So Alexander came along to give us a way to address this idea of a day just spinning OUT of YOUR control. As it spins into disaster and you need to fully address it."I'm not happy here." Good work. I can't think of anything comparable. For a gift to someone in certain situations, this can be perfect. It just depends.
I had a bad day Friday.I might read it and tell my class. I might not. It depends. My son came home from high school, after a wrestling tumbling drill for two hours. This is how they sent him to me...lost the sight in one eye, lost feeling in one arm, he had a sudden onset of crushing head pain, he got dizzy, he threw up. He had a concussion less than a month ago and wrestling practice gave him to me like this then, but Friday was the worst yet. He had tests, a spinal tap. We still don't know. But an MRI is next. No sports for a year now and a neurologist. It was such a bad day I am actually playing that Had a Bad Day song in my head over and over and over.....the one that won't go away and thinking of reading this to him though he outgrew it a few years ago. He had a very bad, serious, and irreconcilably bad day. With a powerlessness that his adult could only put the car in gear and get to an ER to stay til 4 AM. And feel as we did as kids herself. Both of us out of control and at the mercy of something with the potential to strip me of my son. There aren't too many ways to reconcile it.
It has to be shared to hold.
Get the book. Kids need it sometimes.
Summary of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Alexander knew it was going to be a terrible day when he woke up with gum in this hair.And it got worse...
His best friend deserted him. There was no dessert in his lunch bag. And, on top of all that, there were lima beans for dinner and kissing on TV!
This handsome new edition of Judith Viorst's classic picture book is sure to charm readers of all ages.
"I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there's gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day."
So begin the trials and tribulations of the irascible Alexander, who has been earning the sympathy of readers since 1972. People of all ages have terrible, horrible days, and Alexander offers us the cranky commiseration we crave as well as a reminder that things may not be all that bad. As Alexander's day progresses, he faces a barrage of bummers worthy of a country- western song: getting smushed in the middle seat of the car, a dessertless lunch sack, a cavity at the dentist's office, stripeless sneakers, witnessing kissing on television, and being forced to sleep in railroad-train pajamas. He resolves several times to move to Australia.
Judith Viorst flawlessly and humorously captures a child's testy temperament, rendering Alexander sympathetic rather than whiny. Our hero's gum-styled hair and peevish countenance are artfully depicted by Ray Cruz's illustrations. An ALA Notable Book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is a great antidote to bad days everywhere, sure to put a smile on even the crabbiest of faces. (Ages 5 to 9)
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