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

Title: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Author: Judith Viorst
Illustrator: Ray Cruz
Number of Pages: 28
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart, Ltd.
Copyright Date: 1972
Grade Level: Intermediate (4-6)
Honors/Awards: None
Type of Book: Picture Book/Multicultural

Summary:
Alexander’s day starts off badly. He has gum in his hair, he trips on his skateboard, and he drops his sweater in the sink while the water is running. Already he can tell it is going to be “a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.” His brothers get toys in their cereal, but he doesn’t. Alexander states that he wants to move to Australia. He has to sit in the middle seat in the back of the car. His teacher doesn’t like his picture of an invisible castle; he sings too loud at singing time and leaves out sixteen during counting time. Alexander’s best friend says he isn’t his best friend anymore. All his friends get dessert in their lunches, but his mom forgot his dessert. He goes to the dentist and finds out he has a cavity. When the dentist says he’ll fix it next week, Alexander says he’ll be in Australia. The elevator door closes on Alexander’s foot; his brother pushes him into the mud and then calls him a crybaby when he cries. When Alexander tries to punch his brother, his mom scolds him “for being muddy and fighting.” Nobody listens to Alexander when he says that he is having “a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.” At the shoe store Alexander has to get plain white shoes because they’re out of the shoes he wants, when they pick up his dad, he makes a mess of his office, there are lima beans for dinner and kissing on TV. His bath is too hot, soap gets in his eyes, and he looses his marble to the drain. He has to wear his least-favorite pajamas, his brother takes back a pillow he said Alexander could keep, the night light burns out, he bites his tongue, and the cat didn’t sleep with him. His mom says “some days are like that – even in Australia.”

Commentary:
This book lets children know that they are not alone: everyone has bad days sometimes. Alexander goes through a lot of bad things on his “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day” and many children will be able to relate to this. It is a multicultural book in that it pictures an African American child. Although the pictures are not in color, they are very appropriate for the book. It has a dreary theme, and is very likely to depress the reader a little after reading it. On the other hand, Alexander’s mom’s words at the end are encouraging. Some days are just like that. Even in Australia. You can’t run away from your problems, and everyone experiences days like that.

Teaching Ideas:

• Journal about a time when you had a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.” You can make a list of all the things that happened to you and draw a picture.
• Draw a picture of what you think Alexander’s “invisible castle” would have looked like if it wasn’t invisible.
• Research Australia
• Learn about cavities, have a dentist visit the classroom
• Make a list of all the bad things that happened to Alexander. Then, on the other side of the paper or the board, write how he could have made those bad things turn out better. Discuss how we can influence whether we have a good day or a bad day

Related Books:
Books by Judith Viorst:
I’ll Fix Anthony
Alexander, Who’s Not (Do you hear me? I mean it!) Going to Move
Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday
Earrings!
Other similar picture books:
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Fortunately by Remy Charlip

Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus

Title: Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus
Author: Barbara Park
Number of Pages: 69
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Copyright Date: 1992
Grade Level: Primary – Intermediate (2-6)
Honors/Awards: None
Type of Book: Easy Reader

Synopsis:
Junie B. Jones is off to her first day of kindergarten, except there’s one problem: she doesn’t want to ride the bus. This book is the first in a large series of Junie B. Jones books. It begins with Junie B. meeting her teacher on “Meet the Teacher Day.” She can’t remember her teacher’s whole name, so she just calls her Mrs. At “Meet the Teacher Day,” Junie B. finds out that she will be riding the bus to school, which makes her a little bit scared, because she has never ridden on a bus before. Her mom tells her not to worry, but she worries anyways.
On the first day of school, Junie B. gets on the bus, but a girl wouldn’t let her sit next to her. She put her purse down on the seat and said that she was saving it for her friend. So Junie B. sits in a different seat. But a boy named Jim who was very grumpy sat next to her, and when Junie B. tried to unzip his backpack he yelled at her and moved to a different seat. As people started to pile on to the bus, it got loud and hot. Junie B. decided that she hated the bus.
In school, Mrs. Has the children write their names on name tags and draw pictures of their families. She also brings them on a tour of the school. She has to have a buddy, so she and a girl named Lucille hold hands. Lucille tells her that on the bus ride home, people pour chocolate milk on your head. On the tour, Junie B. learns about the nurse’s office and the principal’s office and the bathrooms (there are two – one for girls where no boys are allowed and one for boys where no girls are allowed). A boy named William has “an emergency” and goes into the boy’s bathroom.
When it is time to line up to get on the bus, Junie B. hides in the supply closet so that she won’t have to get on the bus. When she has hid in the closet for a while, she gets out and starts playing with the art supplies that Mrs. has. Then she decides to go to the Media Center, where she almost gets caught by the school janitor, or, as she calls him, “the man with the can.” So Junie B. looks for a better hiding place in the nurse’s office. Here she puts Band-Aids all over her body, pretends to make calls on the phone, and finally tries to use crutches that are too big for her. This makes her fall down and hit her head on the desk. She runs out of the nurse’s office into the cafeteria, where she realizes that she needs to go to the bathroom, so she runs to the girl’s room, but the door is locked. The boy’s room is locked too, and it’s an emergency! Then she remembers what her mom told her to do if there is ever an emergency – call 9-1-1.
Junie B. runs to the nurse’s office and dials 9-1-1. She tells the woman on the other line that it is an emergency and all the doors are locked, but when the woman keeps telling her to calm down, she hangs up the phone.
She runs outside, not knowing what else to do, and finds that an ambulance, a fire truck, and a police car had shown up at her school. The janitor comes running out and yelling for Junie B. to stop running, and when Junie B. tells him about her emergency, he brings her into the school and unlocks the door to the girl’s room. Mrs., Junie B.’s mom, and the principal come out and scold Junie B. for hiding and not getting on the bus. When Junie B. gets home, her mom tells her about a girl who will be riding the bus for the first time the next day, and she suggests that Junie B. sit next to her. Junie B. likes that idea, and decides that she will bring her purse to school and set it next to her on the bus to save a seat for her new friend, Grace.

Commentary:
All of the Junie B. Jones books are hilarious for those of us who are fluent readers and can understand the humor in her grammatical errors and the mind of a rambunctious kindergartener. I would hesitate to use this book with children who are just learning to read, or who are having trouble with grammar. The good thing, though, about using this book with very young children is that there are many opportunities for teaching moments. Discussions of respecting authority, being nice to other children, and using your inside voice may be a necessity with this book. Junie B. can be disrespectful at times, and she certainly doesn’t treat everyone in her class as a friend.

Teaching Ideas:

• Use passages from the book for children to correct as a grammar/writing assignment


• Junie B. noticed that the name “Lucille” sounds like a seal. Come up with what animal your name sounds like, and talk about spelling differences


• Make name tags on big circles, just like Junie B.’s class did


• Talk about safety, and the meaning of the word “emergency.” Emphasize when it is appropriate to call 9-1-1 and when it isn’t, especially since this is not directly addressed in the book


• Talk about safety in school and on the bus


• Have the children write about a time that something happened to them on the bus, and what they did to make the situation better


• Write thank-you notes to the school bus driver

Related Books:
Books by Barbara Park:
Junie B. Jones series
The Kid in the Red Jacket
Almost Starring Skinny-Bones
Mick Harte Was Here
Books with a School Bus:
The Magic School Bus series by Scholastic Books, Inc.
Miss Honey’s School Bus by Richard Scarry

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

American Grub

Title: American Grub
Author: Lynn Kuntz and Jan Fleming
Illustrator: Mark A. Hicks
Number of Pages: 77
Publisher: Scholastic
Copyright Date: 1997
Grade Level: All Ages (K-6)
Honors/Awards: None
Type of Book: Picture Book/Informational

Synopsis:
In American Grub, there are 50 recipes, one for each state in the United States of America. Along with recipes, though, there is also a paragraph including interesting facts about each state, a picture of the state, the nickname of the state, and the capital of the state. In the back of the book, there is an index listing all the different dishes that are described in the book under different categories. There are also some science implications when possible, such as Illinois’ pizza, which includes yeast. We learn that yeast is a fungus and how it makes bread rise.
Examples of Dishes:
New York Delish Deli Duo
Iowa Popzacorn Balls
Arizona Powwow Wow Bread

Commentary:
Even if you’re not going to use this book when teaching, it’s a great book to have on a bookshelf for kids to thumb through in their free time. Although it isn’t a story or a book that you would ever expect a child to read from cover-to-cover, this book has a lot of facts about individual states, interesting cooking ideas that the kids can try out at home, and lots of fun pictures! Kids can learn a lot from reading just one page of this book.

Teaching Ideas:
· Teach about the 50 states
· Talk about the differences between foods in our own country, then expand that to a discussion about the differences between foods in the USA and foods in other countries around the world
· Have students chose one state and give a presentation on it (including state bird, flower, etc. and an example of that state’s food)
· Measurement of ingredients, and learning about the art of cooking
· A lesson on Americanization and immigration
· Talk about taste buds, using the information from page 59
· When talking about Nevada, bring in a Spanish lesson because Nevada means “snowy” in Spanish.
· Talk about trade, and how different places in the world are better suited to produce different products (like oranges from Florida)
· Kitchen and cooking safety, following pages 10-12

Related Books:
Books about the United States:

Books about cooking/food:

The Boxcar Children

Title: The Boxcar Children

Author: Gertrude Chandler Warner

Number of Pages: 154

Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company

Copyright Date: 1942

Grade Level: Intermediate Grades (3-6)

Honors/Awards: None

Type of Book: Chapter Book/Easy Reader

Summary:
Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny are siblings who, when their parents passed away, decided that they didn't want to live with their grandfather. Insisting that he wouldn't like them because he didn't like their mother, they make a home for themselves in an abandoned boxcar. The children make this boxcar a home for themselves, taking silverware, a tea kettle, and cups from a junkyard. They build a dam in the stream, making a swimming pool, and make a fire pit so they can cook food and boil water to clean their dishes. Henry finds work at a doctor's house and the other children find a stray dog, who they name "Watch," because he becomes their watchdog.

One day while working for the doctor, Henry enters a race and wins. He doesn’t know it, but the man who gives him his prize is actually his grandfather, from whom he and his siblings have been hiding. Of course his grandfather doesn’t know that this is the boy that he has been frantically looking for.

One night the children hear a noise in the woods, and Watch starts to growl. We find out at the end of the book that the noise was the doctor coming to check on them. Henry enjoys his work with the doctor, and the girls and Benny enjoy making the boxcar a home. Henry makes enough money to buy some essential foods, such as milk and bread and meat. Once he even brought home butter! Benny tries to cut Watch’s hair like Jessie cut his and he writes a “J” on his side, representing that Watch belongs to Jessie. The children love the new life they made for themselves, until one day when Violet gets sick. They aren’t able to nurse her back to health, and afraid that they will be found out if they bring her to the hospital, Henry runs to get the doctor that he works for. Without asking where to go, the doctor drives to the boxcar and brings Violet and her siblings back to his home.

The doctor calls the children’s grandfather, who had sent a flyer out looking for his grandchildren. When he comes, the doctor insists that he get to know the children before telling them that he is their grandfather. After a few days of getting to know each other (and the children growing to like him), he reveals his identity. When Violet regains her health, they all move in with the doctor. Watch becomes their dog for good, as the man who owned him had sold him to another woman, and the woman says that they can keep him.
Commentary: A great book about children making it on their own. It’s every child’s dream when they think about running away from home. It would be a good idea to talk with the students about the fact that this is a fictional book, and in real life the children probably wouldn’t have had such an easy time trying to make it on their own. Talking about strangers may also be essential, as Henry walked up to a stranger and asked him if he could work for him. This story is one that most people in my generation have read, and it will continue to be a classic for ages. It is very well written, especially for a chapter book. It could be considered a novel, but I have listed it as a chapter book for its simple language, large font, and pictures.

Teaching Ideas:

• Talk about strangers, as Henry approached a stranger to ask for work


• Talk about the differences between life in the 1940’s (when this book was written) and today.


• Talk about how the story might be different if the children were running away from home today


• Have students write their own fictional story about making it on their own

Related Books:
Books by Gertrude Chandler Warner:
Blue Bay Mystery
The Boxcar Children Mysteries
Books about Orphans:
Thirteen Orphans by Jane Lindskold
Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
Books about Adventures:
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George*
The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson

The Moon Book

Title: The Moon Book

Author: Gail Gibbons

Number of Pages: 30

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Copyright Date: 1997

Grade Level:

Type of Book: Picture Book/Informational

Synopsis:

This picture book tells everything you ever wanted to know about the moon. We learn about the moon's orbit around the earth, history about what people thought the moon was, the phases of the moon, scientific names of the phases, the solar and lunar eclipses, and how the moon effects the weather. We also learn about astronomers, and how they look at the moon from earth (telescopes, binoculars, and observatories). Gibbons describes what the moon looks like up close, and tells us the history of how we came to know all this information about our moon. She describes Luna 3 and Surveyor 1 and Apollo 8. Finally, she tells us about Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin in the Apollo 11 mission. At the end of her book, Gibbons has a list of "Moon Milestones" and "Moon Legends and Stories," as well as "More Moon Facts" for those who still want to know more.

Commentary:

This book has all the information a teacher could ask for about the moon. It answers many questions about the moon that children may raise when talking about the solar system. Teachers will learn from the book just as much as the students will! It is also an especially good book for the classroom because there are so many practical applications to teaching in it.

Teaching Ideas:
- A: Have students make a solar eclipse project like the one in the book
- S: Record the phases of the moon as they happen, ask students if they saw the moon last night

- S: Use binoculars to look at the sky and try to find the moon during the day, or send them home with one student per night so they can examine the moon at night
- SS: Watch a video of the first steps on the moon

- ELA: Have each student write their own legend about the moon

Related Books:

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Sarah, Plain and Tall

Title: Sarah, Plain and Tall
Author: Patricia MacLachlan
Number of Pages: 58
Publisher: The Trumpet Club
Copyright Date: 1985
Grade Level: Intermediate Grades (4-6)
Honors/Awards: Newbery Medal
Type of Book: Chapter Book/Multicultural

Synopsis:
Anna lives with her Papa, Jacob and her younger brother, Caleb on a farm. Her mother died when Caleb was born. Ever since she died, Papa didn't sing. Papa sends out for a wife, feeling that his children need a mother. The response that he gets back is from Sarah. Sarah has been living in Maine with her brother, but now that her brother is getting married, she feels it's time to move out. They set up a time when she can come to visit and see how she likes the farm. Her last letter before she arrives says, "Tell them I sing."
When Sarah arrives with her yellow bonnet and her cat, Anna and Caleb are overjoyed to see her and get to know her. Sarah tells them about the sea, and Anna and Caleb show her their sheep. Sarah brings them seashells, and Anna and Caleb help her pick wildflowers to dry in the winter. Sarah and the family sing together, and Papa sings too. The whole visit, Anna and Caleb wonder if she will marry Papa and stay with them or go back home to the sea she loves so dearly.
Sarah insists that Jacob teach her how to drive by herself, and Anna and Caleb are nervous about why she wants to go into town by herself. They don't want her to leave, but they aren't naive to the possibility. When Sarah goes into town, they spend the day waiting for her to return. When Sarah finally comes back, she brings blue and gray and green colored pencils: the colors of the sea. She tells them that she will always miss the sea, but she would miss Anna and Caleb and Jacob much more than she could ever miss the sea.

Commentary:
Sarah, Plain and Tall is a beautifully written book that, in the midst of its simplicity, gives the reader countless reasons to fall in love with Anna, Caleb, Papa, and Sarah. Caleb's inquisitiveness, Anna's gentle heart, Papa's quiet spirit, and of course Sarah, plain and tall touch the reader's heart and allow the reader to relate to each of the characters on a personal level.

Teaching Ideas:

• Have children make a table of contents with the chapter titles (shows the theme/main ideas of the chapter) à Idea from Fountas & Pinnell
• Character Web
• Bring seashells in for children to explore, do crafts with them, identify their names from a seashell resource book
• Venn Diagrams comparing and contrasting (the sea and the cow ponds, the sea and the prarie)
• Study about prairies
• Make a habitat shoebox
• “Virtual field trips”
• Adding with sea animals or prairie animals (could also tie in algebra with two different kinds of animals – because you can’t combine letter numbers and regular numbers)
• Practice writing letters (perhaps get a pen pal in another class)
• Brainstorm about traveling to a different place (talk to a partner and make a chart)
• Talk about one-room school houses (and perhaps a field trip to Genesee Country Museum)
• State projects on Maine and Kansas

Related Books:

Books by Patricia MacLachlan:
What you Know First
Baby
Journey
More Perfect than the Moon
Books about the Sea:
Time of Wonder by Robert McClosky
One Small Square Seashore by Donald M. Silver
Books about Family:
Mama One, Mama Two by Patricia MacLachlan
Books about living on the Prairie:
The Little House Cookbook by Barbara M. Walker

Just Ella

Title: Just Ella
Author: Margaret Peterson Haddix
Illustrator:
Number of Pages:
Publisher:
Copyright Date:
Grade Level: Intermediate Grades (4th-6th)
Honors/Awards:
Type of Book: Novel

Synopsis:
The story of Cinderella... the real story of Cinderella... after the not-so-happily ever after. We learn about how Ella (called "Cinders-Ella" by her stepsisters) really made it to the ball, won the prince, made it to the castle, became a princess, and after a stunning turn of events, was able to find her real happily-ever-after.
Ella was just a normal young girl whose father got remarried to a stuck-up woman who had two stuck-up daughters. Ella was slowly turned into a servant in her own home as Lucille (her stepmother) came to convince her father that Corrimund and Grizelda couldn't do the hard labor that Ella was so fortunate to be capable of. When her father passed away while crossing the Sualan border to buy books, Ella began to be treated even worse. So when the invitation came inviting all eligible young ladies to a ball in honor of Prince Charming, Ella saw it as an opportunity to gain some independence from Lucielle and the "Step-Evils," as she called them. She would try to find work as a tutor.
Out shopping one day, she found a glass blower who, wanting to show off, agreed to make glass slippers for her. She found her mother's wedding gown in the attic and, after helping the Step-Evils off to the ball, scrubbed herself down and was off!
When she entered the ballroom, she was taken into one ballroom while the girls she entered with were escorted into another ballroom. She spent the night dancing with the prince, and lost track of the time. When the clock struck twelve, she ran out of the ballroom, remembering that she had to clean the attic before the others got back home.
The next day, the prince found her and whisked her off to the palace, where for months she took lessons (which she hated) to learn how to act like a princess (which she was very bad at). When one of her teachers has a stroke, his son, Jed, is sent to teach the class in his place. Immediately, Ella and Jed become great friends. Ella also befriends a servantgirl, Mary. And in the midst of her making friends in the castle and her boring lessons about how to be a princess, she is able to see Prince Charming ("Charm," as she refers to him in her imagination) only once in a while with a chaperone.
Ella soon falls out of love with the prince, realizing that he is a mindless man who wouldn't know how to dress himself every morning if his attendants didn't tell him how. She decides to break the engagement, but when she talks to the prince about it, he doesn't take the news lightly. He ties her up, and calls in his royal advisors to "tell him what to do." When they come in, they leave Ella bound and basically tell her that she can't break the engagement. When she insists that she will never marry the prince, they throw her in the dungeon, where she is treated like a prisoner until (according to their threats) she either agrees to marry the prince or her wedding day arrives and she is forced to marry him.
Ella's connection with the servantgirl, Mary pays off when Mary finds her and brings her food stolen from the kitchen, as well as a shovel. Ella decides to dig her way out of the palace through the "crap hole" in her cell. Mary informs Ella that Jed has been sent to work with the Sualan refugees, which as Ella knows has been Jed's dream for longer than she has known him.
When Ella is able to escape, she travels to the Sualan border to meet Jed and ask him if she can work for him. When she finally arrives, he proposes, confessing his love for her.
Ella was taken by surprise, and asked that they wait a while so she could think about it. Jed is called back to the palace when he receives the news of his father's death, and Ella remains at the campsite doing the work Jed once did. Jed writes to Ella telling about how the prince married her stepsister so as not to cause a scene, and also to tell her that with the connections that he now has he thinks he could end the war against Suala. The book ends with Ella making up her mind that she loves and wants to marry Jed.

Commentary:
This is a wonderfully written book that opens up the reader's mind to possibilities that the original farytale stories don't allow you to believe. A completely fictional book, Just Ella sparks the reader's imagination and encourages creativity in imagining alternate endings to the normal "happily ever afters" that we are so accustomed to. For girls, this book shows the importance of friendship over romance, and unlike other farytales, shows that there isn't always "happily ever after" with "Prince Charming."

Teaching Ideas:

- Before reading the story, have students come up with their own not "happily-ever-after" ending to the Cinderella story

Related Books:

Slender Ella and her Fairy Hogfather, by Vivian Sathre, Chapter Book

The Princess School Let Down Your Hair, by Jane B. Mason & Sarah Hines Stephens, Novel

The Frog Princess, by E.D. Baker, Novel

Rapunzel, by Paul O. Zelinsky, Picture Book, Caldecott Medal

There's an Alligator Under my Bed

Title: There's An Alligator Under My Bed

Author: Mercer Mayer

Illustrator: Mercer Mayer

Number of Pages: 29

Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers

Copyright Date: 1987

Grade Level: Primary Grades (K-3)

Honors/Awards: None

Type of Book: Picture Book

Synopsis:

In this picture book, the narrator is a young boy who, when it was time to go to bed, had to be very careful because he had an alligator under his bed. Whenever he called his parents into the room, they couldn't find the alligator, so the boy decided to take matters into his own hands. He went downstairs to the kitchen and took all the food that he thought alligators would like, then made a trail of "alligator bait" from his room to the garage. Then, all he had to do was wait. The alligator came out and ate everything. The boy followed him through the hall, down the stairs, and when he reached the garage, the boy slammed the door shut! After he returned to bed, the boy realized that he should leave a note for his parents letting them know about the alligator in the garage.

Commentary:

This is a very simple, yet very entertaining book. Mercer Mayer does an exellent job describing the thoughts and imagination of a young boy. It addresses the issue of children being afraid of "monsters under the bed" without being scary. The book gives the illusion that there is nothing to be afraid of, even if there really were an alligator under the bed. It encourages bravery as well as imagination.

Teaching Ideas:

Related Books: