Monday, December 29, 2008

Even Horses Have Bad Days.

By Harold Littledale, Illustrated by Tom Vroman
Parents' Magazine Press, 1964

As Chris and his father visit at bedtime, Chris tells his dad, "Alexander was a pretty bad horse today." He proceeds to tell his father all about the bad things that "Alexander," the horse with the red and green stripes, did that day--refusing to eat his cereal or brush his teeth, not playing with the others at the park, splashing water in the bathtub, and refusing to pick up his toys. His father sees through the scapegoating and reminds his son that things will be better the next day.

"You wait," he said. "Alexander will be a wonderful little horse tomorrow. And you'll be a wonderful little boy, too."

Chris giggled. "How did you know I wasn't very nice today?" he asked.

His father turned out the light in the hall. "Alexander told me," he said.


"And he jumped and jumped all over the living-room couch even when Mommy asked him not to..."


"Well, we went to the grocery store. And Alexander swished his tail and knocked over a jar of peaches by accident--and broke it."

"I guess it's pretty hard for a horse in a grocery store," Chris's father said.

"He'd better be more careful," Chris said, "or we won't be able to take him shopping with us any more."



1 comment:

A.L. said...

Thank you so much for this post! I've been trying to remember the name of this book... all I could remember was that it was an animal named Alexander, and he knocked over a jar of peaches with his tail. When I saw your scans, it all came back! I loved this book!

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