I hear you!
And I think I'll finish Thursday's post tomorrow.
Sorry kids, I am exhausted.
by Judith Viorst, Illustrated by Ray CruzSimon & Schuster,1972
Okay, where was I? Oh yes, bad days. Hmmmm... I've not really had a BAD day these past couple days, so much as I've felt frazzled and stressed and tugged in a million directions and my capacity to handle that kind of stress flew out the window sometime around 8:30 am on Thursday! I guess I'm not transitioning to my back to school mode all that well, this time.
Judith Viorst seems to understand this kind of mentality at least that of a young boy whose day is just NOT going well. It seems like we all face this from time to time. In Alexander's case his day starts by waking up to gum in his hair, tripping over a skateboard, and dropping his sweater in the sink when the water is running. It was THEN that he knew it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day!
Judith Viorst seems to understand this kind of mentality at least that of a young boy whose day is just NOT going well. It seems like we all face this from time to time. In Alexander's case his day starts by waking up to gum in his hair, tripping over a skateboard, and dropping his sweater in the sink when the water is running. It was THEN that he knew it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day!
This breakfast cereal moment is classic. I love, love, love the grumpy, disgruntled look on his face on each of the pages of this book. Things don't go well in the car pool. He left out the number sixteen at counting time. "Who needs sixteen? I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day." He had friend troubles (those are spot on for the way it goes with kids too!) and his mom left out the dessert in his lunch. He had a dentist appointment, had to go shoe shopping, fought with his brother who called him a crybaby when he cried over the elevator door shutting on his foot."And there were lima beans for dinner and I hate limas.
There was kissing on TV and I hate kissing.
My bath was too hot, I got soap in my eyes, my marble went down the draibn, and I had to wear my railroad-train pajamas. I hate my railroad-train pajamas."
Don't you just want to hug this kid? I love it. I can relate. Irritable, annoyed, hating everything. Those are the days when you just WANT to go to bed early so the madness will stop and you can start over the next day. Or maybe just move to Australia. I like that idea too!
3 comments:
This is actually one of Mr. Sneaky Pants' VERY favorite book. Which is probably fitting, considering all the bad days he actually has. Sarah likes it too, because she loves to illustrate stories using only pencil with lots and lots of details, and she loves the pictures in this book. That was interesting to me, because I remember NOT liking the pictures in this book when I was a kid because there weren't any colors!
I understand your aversion to the lack of color. I bet that would have bothered me too. I don't remember. What I DO like about the pictures is the expressiveness of Alexander's face.
"Some days are like that. Even in Australia." is the best closing line to any book ever written.
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