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

By: Judith Viorst 

Illustrated by: Ray Cruz

  In Judith Viorst’s “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” she accurately describes one of those days as a child when nothing seemed to go your way. From the moment that the main character, Alexander wakes up, to the moment he goes back to sleep that night, his day is filled with a series of adolescent atrocities that not only ruin his day, but further fuel his ambition to move to Australia.

The genre of this book is solely a children’s graphic novel, with an underlined theme of we all have bad days, but it’s all about how you deal with it. The unfortunate events that take place with Alexander and his responses to them generate the comical backbone of this text.  The novel is told from Alexander’s point of view, it is set in many various locations, all relative to Alexander’s life. The other characters are Alexander’s family, classmates, and Dentist.

Only the cover of the book was given color, the rest of the artwork is done in black and white, with an interesting shadowing technique throughout the book. Ray Cruz the illustrator created artwork that precisely described what was happening in the text.  There are an equal number of pages with a full-page spread, versus pages with a one-page picture, while the other has a reaction of Alexander underneath the text, leaving plenty of room for Alexander to entertain readers.

The author effectively illuminated her title in the content and the artist portrayed each occurrence precisely. Ms. Viorst seems to have a that’s life, deal with it, kind of attitude, which I can relate to, and appreciate. There are no hidden messages, just everyday calamity. Appropriate for ages 5 and up.