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

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Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Author	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.^[1][2] 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.^[3]

Contents 1 Plot 2 TV adaption 3 Theater 4 Characters 5 References

[edit] Plot

From the moment he wakes up with gum in his hair, things just do not go Alexander's way. Getting out of bed, he trips on a skateboard and drops his sweater into a sink full of water. At breakfast, Alexander's brothers Nick and Anthony reach into their cereal boxes and pull out amazing prizes, while all Alexander ends up with is cereal.

On the way to school, he doesn't get the window seat in the carpool. At school, ^[1] his teacher doesn't like his drawing of an invisible castle (which is actually just a blank sheet of paper) and criticizes him for singing too loud and leaving out 16. His friend Paul reduces Alexander to third best friend and there is no dessert in his lunch.

At the dentist's, the dentist tells Alexander he has a cavity, the elevator door hurts his foot, Anthony pushes him into the mud, Nick calls him a crybaby for crying, and Mom catches 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 buy him plain white sneakers, which he'll refuse to wear.

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

At home, Alexander's bad day is far from over. 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 the 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, Alexander's 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.^[1] The book ends with his mother's assurance that everyone has bad days, even people who live in Australia.

^[4] In the New Zealand version he wants to move to Timbuktu, not Australia.

[edit] TV adaption

In 1990, the book was adapted into a half-hour animated musical special and aired on HBO in the United States.

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 blond hair, Nick has blond 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, the producers 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 pulling out a drawer too far, making it land on his foot.
• Alexander spilling breakfast cereal on the floor while searching for the free prize.
• Alexander's friends refusing to let him play Monkey in the Middle with them.
• Alexander singing "roll" and "merlily" in the "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" song.
• Alexander's friends teasing him for going to the dentist when he explains why he can't come play ball with them.
• Alexander fooling around with the toothpaste, dentist chair, and tray during his dental appointment.
• The shoe store man turning down Alexander's alternate choice of sneakers (green ones).
• Dad punishes Alexander for playing with the copying machine and knocking the books off his desk by making him sit on the couch for a timeout.

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

5. Although mentioned, we don't see the following bad things in the special.

• The family eating lima beans for dinner.
• Alexander watching kissing on television.
• Alexander's bath making 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"

[edit] Theater

In 1998, Viorst and the Kennedy Center joined together to turn the book into a musical production.^[1][5] Viorst wrote the music and lyrics, and the musical score was composed by Shelly Markham.^[5] The productions have been performed around the country.^[1][4][6]

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

[edit] Characters

Alexander and his two older brothers, Anthony and Nick, are based on Viorst's own three sons of the same names.^[3]

[edit] References

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