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

By: Judith Viorst
Illustrated by Ray Cruz

A true classic in many home and classroom libraries all over, reading this book as an adult made me remeber why. Besides the way that absolutely everything goes wrong for Alexander during his Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, the way that the author finds such funny things to include captures the way in real life these sort of days happen to all of us. It is important for children to understand that although they may think that the end of the world is coming when they happen to have a bad day, in reality everyone has bad days. The black and white pictures are my favorite part of the book. I think it reinforces how awful Alexander's day is because of the lack of vibrance it has. And you know as the reader that when you flip the page, it will be black and white and more terrible things will happen to Alexander. Still a classic, still a favorite. Reread it and love it as much as I do.

Ages: K- 4th grade