Children’s Contemporary Realistic Fiction Literature

Evaluation Form

Your Name: Breanna Holden

Book Title: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Author: Judith Viorst
Genre: Realistic Fiction / Humor
Illustrator: Ray Cruz
Publisher/Year: Atheneum Books for Young Readers; Reprint edition July 15, 1987

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)
This book is written in first person, from the perspective of Alexander. He talks about
his day from start to finish and at time narrates what people like his mom says. He
mentions events that made him feel it was a bad day.

The words used were very simple. There were not a lot of complex words.

The story had a good flow to it. There were repeated tones and patterns noticed.

Some sentences were short, but most were long. I noticed many times it felt I ran out
of breath when I got to the end where it repeats terrible, horrible, no good, very bad
day. I also noticed myself emphasizing parts of the book, such as when he says I. All
the I’s are bold letters, so it draws attention to them.

The reader learns that everyone has bad days. Sometimes things don’t go right and
that’s okay. I liked that it normalized feelings.

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 in this story is Alexander
The reader can relate to the character because the reader shares the same emotions
as Alexander. Everyone has had a bad day or felt upset because something didn’t go
the way they wanted. The reader can relate to Alexander and compare what made
Alexander have a bad day to what made the reader have a bad day.

The supporting character is Alexander’s mom, brothers, dad, teachers, and friends.

Plot: Summarize the major events of the story (6 points)

Alexander wakes up and starts his day off with gum in his hair, he tripped over a
skateboard, and didn’t get a special item in his cereal like his brothers. The story
moves through his day and it doesn’t get much better. From his car ride where he felt
carsick, to school where he didn’t feel his work was appreciated. His day just kept
disappointing him. He didn’t get the shoes he wanted and he had food he didn’t like
for dinner. He kept saying he wanted to move to Australia. In the end his mom told
him some days are bad, 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)

Setting of this book is all over. The book is about Alexanders day, it starts in the
morning and finishes at night. Alexander was at home, a car, school, his dads office,
and, a shoe store.

The message of this book is that sometimes bad days happen. It’s okay to have days
like this. Everyone has them. For Alexander he thinks of moving to Australia, that’s
how he copes through his bad day.

Illustration: Analyze the book you selected with the following categories
Style (realism, surrealism, expressionism, impressionism, naïve, cartoon art)? (2 points)

The book is illustrated with cartoon art.

Media Choice (paints, oils watercolors, pencils, pen, charcoal, crayons, acrylic, chalk): (2 points)

The illustrations were created with pen etchings.

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

Line: Lines in this book were both curved and straight. They move in all directions.
Lines were used throughout to provide detail and demonstrate movement.
Shapes: Shapes were used to provide dimension to the artwork. Both manmade
shapes and natural shapes appeared in the illustrations.
Color: Achromatic; white pages, black drawings.
Texture: The texture in this book’s images were rough looking. The etching and
crosshatching that was used didn’t provide a soft appearance.
Page design (placement of the illustrations, use of borders, white and dark space and all pages
the same or different). (3)

Pages were white. The illustrations varied page to page. Some pages had a drawing
stretched across both pages; some pages just had a single image of Alexander.
Words were written in blank areas on the pages.
No borders were used.

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

describe the connection to the book Choose 1 only (5 points)

Emotional Development:
Identify the age: 7-11 years old
Explain the social development for this age and how the book relates
to the emotional level you chose: Increase the variety of strategies for emotional
regulation. Develops ability to consider multiple sources of information to explain
other emotions. Aware that people can experience more than one emotion at a time.

This book encourages emotional development because it addresses feelings and how
what sparked Alexander to have a bad day. The book offers many opportunities to
discuss the feelings Alexander might be feeling and if anyone has felt like that before
too. For example, when he says that his teacher likes his sailboat better than the
invisible castle. That might have made Alexander feel rejected, unappreciated, sad,
hurt, angry… There are so many feelings and emotions that can be tied into the book.
1 would not recommend 2 average 3 highly recommended

Your rating of the book: 3 highly recommend

Why?

I recommend this book because it is easy to read and easy to relate to. The words were
easy enough for a young reader to pick it up and read and understand. It is a
lighthearted way to discuss feelings. It also offers an opportunity to discuss feelings
that aren’t in the book by talking about the readers days good and bad. I remember
this book vaguely from when I was a child, the repeating of the title is a clever way to
make the book memorable.