Children’s Literature Evaluation Form

Your Name: Samantha Wasylkowski

Book Title: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Author: Judith Viorst

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Illustrator: Ray Cruz

Publisher/Year: Atheneum Books, 1972

Evaluate the Book for the following elements
Style and Language: Using examples for the book, explain the following: Word choices, dialogue,

rhythm, rhyme and sentence length. Share unexpected insights or interesting information the

reader learns from this story. (5 points)

Word choices are familiar for children to understand, “smushed”, “scrunched”, “terrible, horrible,

no good, very bad”, “dessert”, “crying”, “muddy”, “sneakers”, “kissing”, “hate”.

There is no dialogue, Alexander explains what people say to him throughout the story. Example:

“Come back next week and I’ll fix it said Dr. Fields. Next week, I said, I’m going to Australia.”

Sentence length is on the longer side, throughout the story. “When I went to bed Nick took back the

pillow, he said I could keep, and the Mickey Mouse night light burned out and I bit my tongue.” “At

breakfast, Anthony found a Corvette Sting Ray car kit in his breakfast cereal box and Nick found a

Junior Undercover Agent Code ring in his breakfast cereal box but in my breakfast cereal box all I

found was breakfast cereal.”

Character: With examples from the book, provide the following- (5 points)

Who is the main character?

How can the reader relate to the character?

Who are the supporting characters?
The main character is Alexander. The supporting characters are his brothers Anthony and Nick.

The reader can relate to the main character, Alexander, because as he is describing his “terrible,

horrible, no good, very bad day” throughout the story, everyone including children can relate to

having a day where a lot of things go wrong and they feel like it is a terrible, horrible, no good, very

bad day.
Plot: Summarize the major events of the story (6 points)
Alexander wakes up with gum in his hair, he trips over his skateboard and he drops his sweater into

the sink. Then, his brothers get toys in their cereal box and he does not. Followed by him getting

smushed in the car and does not get a window seat and feels sick on the way to school. Once he is

at school his bad day continues when his friend does not want to be his friend anymore and his

mom forgot to pack him dessert. Then, after school he goes to the dentist with his family, and he is

the only one with a cavity. The shoe store is sold out of his size in the shoes he wants. He makes a

mess in his dad’s office. At dinner, he does not like his food or what is on tv. He gets soap in his eye

in the bath, does not like his pajamas and his night light burned out. His mom reminds him that

some days are just like that, even in Australia.

Setting: Explain the place and time of this book. (2 points)

Theme: What is the main message of this book? (2 points)

The story starts at Alexander’s house in the morning. The story continues throughout Alexander’s

day at school, followed by the dentist, the shoe store, his dad’s office and then back to his house in

the evening.

The main message of this book is that everyone has bad days, no matter who you are or where you

are, but every day is a new day and we can start anew the next day.
Illustration: Analyze the book you selected with the following categories
Style (realism, surrealism, expressionism, impressionism, naïve, cartoon art)? (2 points)
Naïve.
Media Choice (paints, oils watercolors, pencils, pen, charcoal, crayons, acrylic, chalk): (2 points)

Painterly Media, pencils.

Give examples of describe how the following visual elements are used in the illustrations: (3)

Line: Many flowing lines throughout the book to suggest movement of the characters.

Shapes: Curved shapes and angular shapes. Curved shapes to show things that are alive and realistic

like the characters, and angular shapes to show man-made things like the furniture.

Color: Achromatic.

Texture: Cross-hatching of lines to create texture on the hair and body of the characters, their

clothing, facial expressions and movement.

Page design (placement of the illustrations, use of borders, white and dark space and all pages the

same or different). (3)

In the book, there are seventeen pages where the illustration is on one individual page. The

illustrations for the most part on those seventeen pages take up the entire page, with little to no

white space above or below the illustration.

On three pages, we see a two-page spread of an illustration.

On six pages, we see an illustration with a lot of white in the background and around the

illustration. On these six pages, the illustration is of Alexander, alone.

Child Development Theory: Choose either Piaget, Erickson or Social Emotional to describe the

connection to the book Chose 1 only (5 points)

Emotional Development: Language improvement, behavior, and cognitive strategies help create

emotional self-regulation.
 Identify the age: 3 to 6 years.

Explain the social development for this age and how the book relates to the emotional level you

chose:

More accuracy and complexity in understanding consequences, causes, and behavior signs.

Increased language creates more automatic response to empathy.

This book relates to this emotional level because as Alexander is explaining all the things that are

going wrong in his “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day”, the reader can identify similar things

that have happened to them on bad days and show empathy for Alexander.

Your rating of the book: My rating of this book is a two, average. I think this book has lengthy

sentences and black-and-white illustrations which I do not think either of those are interesting to

children. I do, however, think this book has a great message as it takes you through Alexander’s

“terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day” to show children that everyone has bad days where most

things go wrong, no matter who you are or where you live. I think it also has potential for you to

discuss with the children the things that Alexander could control and the things that were out of his

control that happened to him.

Book Extension Activity (25 points)

Your Name: Samantha Wasylkowski

Book Title: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Book Author: Judith Viorst

Publisher: Atheneum Books

Date: 1972

1. Pre-K/CCSD K-2nd Grade Core Standard (5 points)

 2.PK.2: ask questions pertinent to the story being read

 3.PK.9: listen to age-appropriate material that makes connections to self and

world around them.

 7.PK.5: engage in conversation

 3.PK.1: identify a range of feelings

 4.PK.1d: demonstrate problem-solving skills

 1.PK.1: use variety of approaches to solving problems

2. Objectives (What will children expect to learn?) (5 points)

 Understand books have meaning.

 Compare events in stories to their own experiences.

 Participate as an equal partner with conversations with others.

 Identify variety of own feelings.

 Show problem solving skills.

 Predict the outcome in stories to answer ‘what if’ questions.

3. Materials and Equipment needed: (5 points)

 Dry erase board

 Dry erase markers

  The talking tube

 Feelings flashcards

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

4. Teaching (What will you do?) (5 points)

Before reading the book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, we will

identify the different feelings we have using feelings flashcards. We will identify happy, sad,

mad, excited. We will identify something that makes us happy, sad, mad, and excited. We will

read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. After

reading the book, we will make a list on the dry-erase board of the things that made Alexander

sad and the things that made Alexander mad. We will go back through the book to find

evidence and discuss how we know Alexander is sad and or mad. Afterwards, we will sit in a

circle on the carpet, and we will each have a turn with the talking tube to identify a time when

we felt like we were having a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day”.

5. Closure: (2 points)

After the activity, we will discuss how we can choose to turn our “terrible, horrible, no good,

very bad” days around and make them better. We will also discuss how just because one thing

happens that is bad that does not make it a bad day. We will learn that just like Alexander’s

mom tells him in the story, some days are just not the best, but we have a chance to start anew

the next day.

6. List 3 additional books in this genre to extend the learning: (3 points)

Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday by Judith Viorst

Alexander, Who’s Not (Do You Hear Me? I Mean It) Going to Move by Judith Viorst

Alexander, Who’s Trying His Best to be the Best Boy Ever by Judith Viorst