Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
By: Judith Viorst
Realistic Fiction

Poor Alexander wakes up on the wrong side of the bed; Seriously. He gets out of bed to wash the gum out of his hair and trips on the skateboard beside his bed. While washing his hair he gets his sweater all wet. You would think the bad things would stop there, wrong! The ride to school, his class at school and even his recess time is awful.
            After school Alexander goes to the dentist and discovers he has a cavity. He buys new shoes, and they are ugly, he goes to his dad’s office and it is an absolute disaster. Finally he gets home, but still has a terrible night. Lima beans for dinner, boring TV, a terribly hot bath, and an ungrateful cat drive Alexander nuts.
            You would think that this book would end happily, but it doesn’t. It just ends with Alexanders mother telling him that everyone has bad days sometimes.


I remember reading this as a kid in school and laughing so hard. I thought it was so funny that Alexander went through all of those things because I thought it was impossible to have a bad day like that. That was, until a very bad day happened to me that went a lot like Alexanders bad day. I got my first conduct mark for telling someone to be quiet during quiet time. I thought my life was absolutely over. I didn’t think I would ever go to school again because of this terrible teacher who wouldn’t listen to my reason for talking during quiet time. I still remember to this day how upset I was. This book reminds me of that time because the next day my teacher reintroduced me to this book and asked if I understood more, and I did. I think this is a great book for students to read, it can be funny, but also very serious. I'd say students from K-5th grade could get a good lesson out of this book. I know I did.

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