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

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Author(s)	Judith Viorst
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Children's
Publication date	June 1972
Pages	32
ISBN	ISBN 0-689-30072-7

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, published in 1972, is an ALA Notable Children's Book written by Judith Viorst and illustrated by Ray Cruz. It has also won a George G. Stone Center Recognition of Merit, a Georgia Children's Book Award, and is a Reading Rainbow book. Viorst followed this book up with a sequel, Alexander and the Wonderful, Marvelous, Excellent, Terrific Ninety Days.

Plot

From the moment Alexander wakes up with gum in his hair, things just don't go Alexander's way. When Alexander gets out of bed, he trips on the skateboard and drops his sweater into the sink while the water was running. At breakfast, Alexander's brothers, Anthony and Nick reach into their cereal boxes and find amazing prizes while Alexander ends up with cereal.

On the way to school, he doesn't get a seat by the window in the car-pool. At school, his teacher, Mrs. Dickens doesn't like his picture of the invisible castle (which is actually just a blank sheet of paper), criticizes him for singing too loud and leaving out 16. His friend, Paul deserts him to be his third best friend and there is no dessert in his lunch.

At the dentist, Dr. Fields tells Alexander he has a cavity, the elevator door closes on his foot, Anthony accidentally pushes him in the mud, Nick says he is a crybaby for crying, and Mom punishes him in the act of punching Nick.

At the shoe store, they're sold out of Alexander's choice of sneakers (blue ones with red stripes), so Mom has to force him to buy himself plain white sneakers, which he refuses to wear.

At Dad's office, Alexander makes a mess of things when he fools around with everything there (the copy machine, the books, and the telephone) getting to the point where Dad tells him not to pick him up from work anymore.

At home, the family has lima beans for dinner (which he hates), there is kissing on TV (which he also hates), bath time becomes a nightmare (too hot water, soap in his eyes, and losing a marble down the drain) and he has to wear his railroad train pajamas (he hates his railroad train pajamas).

At bedtime, his nightlight burns out, he bites his tongue, Nick takes back a pillow, and the family cat chooses to sleep with Anthony. No wonder Alexander wants to move to Australia. The book ends with Mom's assurance that everybody has bad days, even people who live in Australia.

In the Australian and New Zealand versions, he wants to move to Timbuktu, not Australia.

TV adaption

In 1990, the book was adapted into a half-hour animated musical television special that aired on HBO in the United States. It was produced by Neptuno Films.

While the special remained true to the book, there were some differences from the original book that are as follows:

1. Dad has no mustache like he did in the book, Anthony has brown hair instead of blonde hair, Nick has blonde hair instead of brown hair and wears glasses, and the family cat is named Timothy (the cat's name wasn't mentioned in the book).

2. Aside from the running gag of Alexander making references to Australia, they added another running gag in the special: Alexander searches for his favorite yo-yo; a purple glow in the dark one at home, school, and Dad's office.

3. Several other bad things for Alexander were added to the special:

• Alexander pulls out a drawer too far, making it land on his foot.
• Alexander spills breakfast cereal on the floor while searching for a free prize.
• Alexander's friends refuses to let him play Monkey in the Middle with them.
• Alexander sings "roll" and "merlily" in the "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" song.
• Alexander's friends tease him for going to the dentist when he explains why he can't come play ball with them.
• Alexander fools around with the toothpaste, dentist chair and tray during his dentist appointment.
• The shoes alesman turns down Alexander's alternate choice of sneakers (green ones).
• Dad unfairly punishes Alexander for playing with the copy machine and knocking the books off his desk by forcing him to sit on the couch for a timeout when he didn't even do those things on purpose.

4. Three good things were added to the special to show the audience that even a bad day can have some good in it:

• Anthony and Nick make up for what they did to Alexander while waiting for Mom to pick up the car.
• Mom finds Alexander's favorite yo-yo in the closet while turning off the bedroom light.
• Before the special closes out to the credits, Timothy changes his mind and sleeps with Alexander while telling us how Mom says everybody has bad days, even in Australia.

5. Although mentioned, the following bad things were cut from the special.

• The family eats lima beans for dinner.
• Alexander watches kissing on TV.
• Alexander's bath makes the evening worse for him.

The special also included three original songs:

• "So much to do, so little time in the morning"
• "If I could be the only child"
• "I've had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day"

Theater

In 1998, Viorst and the Kennedy Center joined together to turn the book into a musical production. Charles Strouse composed the music, Viorst wrote the script and lyrics, and the musical score was composed by Shelly Markham. The productions have been performed around the country.

Other characters in the play are Audrey, Becky and many others.

Currently, the Coterie Theatre is putting on a musical based on the book.

Characters

Alexander and his two older brothers, Anthony and Nick, are based on Viorst's own three sons of the same names.

Cultural references

The phrase "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad..." has become an Internet meme, often used by bloggers, and sometimes by mainstream media, to criticize, or characterize setbacks for, an individual or political movement.

References

http://www.coterietheatre.org/alexander.aspx