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


 

Dear Blog, 

Last week I read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (1972).  This fictional picture book was written by Judith Viorst and illustrated by Ray Cruz.  This 1972 ALA Notable Children's Book, has also won the George G. Stone Center Recognition of Merit Award and is a Reading Rainbow book.  

I chose to read this book because some students were just not having a good day.  They felt like everything they wanted or tried to do turned out wrong, just like it did for Alexander.  In the book, Alexander's day starts off horrible.  He wakes up to find gum in his hair from the night before.  Just when he thinks his day cannot get any worse, bad event after bad event keeps happening. The poor guy had everything happen from dropping his sweater in the sink, not getting the seat he wanted in the carpool, not counting incorrectly, falling in the mud, and so much more! He was having such a bad day that he mentioned moving to Australia numerous times.   At the end of the day, his mom tells him that sometimes we just have bad days.  Even if he moves to Australia he will still have bad days and some days are just like that.

After reading the book, I discussed with my students the various aspects of Alexander's horrible, no good, very bad day.  On the first page of the book the text says, "...when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on my skateboard."  I encourage the students to look at the illustrations and see what they can see.  I asked the students "What do you notice about Alexander's room?" and "What could Alexander have done that would have prevented him from tripping over his skateboard?"  I would also say "Alexander talks about moving to Australia a lot."  I would ask the students, "Why do you think Alexander wants to move to Australia?" and "How do you think Alexander's family would feel if he moved to Australia?"

This is a great book for teaching students that sometimes we just have bad days and we need to take them as best as we can!  It also can be used to teach students that running away is never the answer.  

 Have fun reading!

Ms. Savannah Smith


Comments

  1. Mrs. PlottOctober 28, 2023 at 6:34 PM

    I love your takeaways and teachable moments for your students about this book. So true, sometimes those days happen and we just go with it and know that it won't last forever and we can start our day over at any moment!

    ReplyDelete

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