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

Okay, it's not actually called that, but Viorst never actually labels the setting of the book. The only thing we know for sure is that it is definitely not Australia. Viorst gives us just enough de...

You know those days where everything feels like it's happening to you? And only to you? No one else gets it. Those are exactly the kinds of experiences after which someone tells you to "have some p...

"Children's Literature" is usually defined simply by the target audience: it's for kids younger than ten years old or so. That means there's a wide variety of things that fall into it: water-proof...

Alexander tells the story through his own voice, which is cynical, dramatic, and just plain fed up with everything that's happening. Of course, his view is entirely self-centered: he doesn't consid...

Viorst's narrative voice is filled with: the reader is constantly aware of how ridiculous Alexander sounds in his overly dramatic take on the events of the day. From the moment Alexander wakes up w...

The title is pretty much a straight-forward description of what the book is about. There's no mystery there, no suspense, no puzzle to figure out like in some other books we know. Alexander and the...

"Some days are like that"? Seriously?! Isn't Mom supposed to make everything good? To say it'll be okay? To kiss it and make it better? That's what she's there for, right?Viorst (and a whole bunch...

The glory of the silver screen is nothing compared to the immortality of the Monopoly Man, the Candy Land people, the stout little cuties from Parcheesi. Now Alexander is part of the club. The Kenn...

Hershey Bar. In the days before bean-to-bar, before people knew what "artisanal" was, back when high fructose corn syrup was a godsend, these were the ultimate reward for any child of classic Ameri...