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


Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is a 1972 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 three sequels, Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday, Alexander, Who's Not Going to Move, and Alexander Who's Trying His Best to Be the Best Boy Ever.

Plot

Alexander narrates the story of having a “terrible, horrible, no good very bad day”. From the moment Alexander woke up, he noticed the bubble gum that was in his mouth when he fell asleep had now gotten stuck in his hair. Then, when he got out of bed, he tripped on his skateboard when he was running. In the bathroom, he accidentally dropped his sweater in the sink while the water was on. So he could tell that it was going to be a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day”.
At breakfast, his brothers, Anthony and Nick, find prizes in their breakfast cereal boxes. But while Anthony and Nick have cool toys, Alexander only finds cereal in his box and no prize at all. Alexander resolves that he is going to move away to Australia.
In the carpool, on the way to school, Alexander has to sit in the middle between two other kids in the back. He complains about how uncomfortable he is and that he will get carsick unless he gets to sit at the window, but no one listens. At school, his teacher Mrs. Dickens discourages Alexander's picture of the invisible castle and says that Paul's picture of a sailboat was better. At singing time, she claims that Alexander sang too loud. Then at counting time, Alexander forgets to count “16” when the class is counting from 1 to 20. When Mrs. Dickens says he forgot the number, his response to her is that no one needs "16" and again laments how bad his day is.
But the problems have still only begun. At recess, he learns that he is no longer Paul’s best friend. Paul has decided to choose Phillip as his first best friend and Albert his second best, Alexander has been brought down to third best. Alexander's response is that he hopes that Paul sits on a tack and also that the next time when he gets an ice cream cone, the ice cream will fall off and land somewhere in Australia.
Then at lunchtime, all four close friends have desserts in their lunch sack, except for Alexander. Respectively, there are two cupcakes for Phillip’s dessert, a Hershey bar with almonds for Albert, and Paul has a jelly roll with coconut sprinkles. But since Alexander's mother forgot to put in dessert, there is no dessert with his lunch. Once again, Alexander laments having a "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day".
After school, Alexander's mother takes him and his brothers to the dentist. At the appointment, the dentist, Dr. Fields finds Alexander is the only one with a cavity. Dr. Fields announces that he will call Alexander in next Thursday and fix it. To which Alexander repeats his plan about moving to Australia for good. Alexander then recalls other bad things on the way back to the car. First the elevator door closed on his foot and outside Anthony pushed Alexander into a mud puddle. Then, as Alexander cried, Nick called him a "cry baby". Finally, when started Alexander hitting his brother for calling him names, his mother scolded him for getting dirty and starting a fight.
At the shoe store, Alexander wants blue sneakers with red stripes, but they are sold out. His mother buys him plain white shoes, which are the only shoes available in his size. Alexander states that the store may sell them to him but he refuses to wear them. When his family comes to pick up his father at the office, Alexander gets in trouble for making a mess and playing with the following things in the office: the copy machine, the stack of books, and the telephone. This culminates in the father asking the family not to pick him up anymore.
That night, the family has lima beans for dinner which Alexander hates; he also hates seeing kissing on TV. During Alexander's bath, the water is too hot, he gets soap in his eyes, his marble lost in the drain, and then he is forced to wear his "railroad-train" pajamas which hates as well. Lastly at bedtime, his nightlight burns out, he bites his tongue, Nick has taken back a pillow he said Alexander could keep, and the cat decides not to sleep with Alexander but with Anthony.
The running gag throughout the book is Alexander saying that he wants to move to Australia because he thinks it's better there. His mother reassures him that everybody has bad days, even those who live there. In the Australian and New Zealand versions, he wants to move to Timbuktu instead.

TV adaptation

On Saturday, September 15, 1990, the book was adapted into a 30-minute animated musical television special that was produced by Klasky Csupo and aired on HBO in the United States.
While the special is mostly true to the book, the following differences are:
This special features 12 more bad things for Alexander:
The special also includes 4 good things to show the audience that even a bad day can have something good in it:
Although mentioned, the three following bad things are not shown in the special:
The special also included three original songs:
In 1998, Viorst and the Kennedy Center joined together to turn the book into a musical production. Charles Strouse wrote 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 it are Audrey, Becky, and many others.
In 2004, a stage adaptation was run at the .
A Disney live-action film adaptation was released in 2014.

Characters

Alexander and his two older brothers, Anthony and Nick, are based on Viorst's own three sons of the same names. But the film changed Nick to Emily, replacing the brother with a sister, and adds Trevor as well.

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.