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

This reality/comedy children's picture book written by Judith Viorst is a great book to read. It is called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No good, Very Bad Day.

Judith is a well known author that writes books for adults, but is more known for her writing of children books, especially her series about Alexander. She also writes poems, writes for news papers and is very talented when it comes to writing.

The setting of the book takes place with Alexander and going through his entire day and why it was the worst day ever, it starts at home for breakfast, moves to school, then back home, and ending in his bed drowning his misery about having the absolute worst day ever.

The main character is Alexander, a child who is mood, and going through stages as a child that is making him realize that bad days happen, and that he just keeps having awful stuff happen to him. Alexander is a spunky child that gets mad at stuff easily such as accidentally going to sleep with gum in his mouth and now it is in his hair, or on the way to school he had to sit in the middle of everyone, not near a window and got clasterphobic.

The conflict with Alexander is that throughout the day he is not getting what he wants, he wants a seat by the window, his best friend does not want to be friends with him anymore, and the dentist found a cavity in his mouth. Throughout the entire day all he says is he wants to move to Australia, and he believes that there none of this negative horrible stuff would happen to him.

The mood of the book was very negative but in a funny way, it was not a sad book, it was an eye opening book even for adults because you realize when you do have a bad day you want to go out of town, you want to leave on a vacation. Then you realize these horrible, no good, very bad days could happen anywhere in the world not just at home.

I loved this book because when I have a bad day I also think about moving away, or going to another town, and I think all of this is only happening to me and nobody cares. When really that is not the truth at all, bad days happen to everyone, everywhere. I really like the fact that throughout the whole book it goes very common mistakes that people not just children make, that make it a bad day.

I would recommend this book to children of all ages because I think at one point or another every child or person can relate to this story line.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

This Picture/fantasy story called Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs was written by Judi Barrett and Drawn by Ron Barrett

Judi Barrett is known as a creative writer that has won many awards for her children's books. She likes to write a lot of fantasy stories including a lot of animals such as Old McDonald and his Apartment house. She is very creative and has a lot of ideas for children's books.

The setting takes place in a town called chewandswallow, in this town there are no stores to buy food, all the food falls out of the sky for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It is a really silly town, because people just carry plates and cups around town with them everywhere.

The characters in the book are Henry, his sister, and Grandpa. The sister is the one telling the story of how Grandpa came up with the idea of the story Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It was because Grandpa was making pancakes, and happen to flip a pancake on Henry's head. It was a silly moment, that when night time came Grandpa had the perfect bed time story.

The conflict/plot of the story is that in the town of chewandswallow the food started to become unable to be eaten. The food got bigger and bigger, or they were gross foods that people would not like eating, and all the food starts destroying the town, and all the people have to move away and go to a different town, before anyone gets hurt.

The mood of this book is silly, happy, and then worried. The idea of the plot is so silly and unconventional, but when the town begins to get into danger because of the food you get worried and curious into what will happen to the town. The idea of the story makes it a happy book.

I really loved this book, it is an idea that I have never read about, and I really liked the images that really showed the town what it was like. This is also a cute story for me because this is also a crazy silly type of story my grandfather would tell me at bedtime. My grandpa is silly and imaginative just like the grandpa in the book, so it was a cute resemblance that I enjoyed reading about. I really enjoyed this book, and hope to read more books from this author.

I would recommend this book to children about the ages 5+ because at this level these children can really understand what is going on in the story without the teacher telling them what is going on.

The Ugly Duckling written and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney is read as a fantasy/ fiction children's book.

Jerry Pinkney is mostly known as an illustrator for children's books but is very interested in diversity and african-american themed books. He opened up his own art studio, and although he is mostly an artist that likes to focus on diversity, multicultural, and african-american themed books, he also wrote very few books that were very good and diverse as well.

I chose this book because I thought it would be perfect for people to read to children, because everyone at one point or another has felt like an outcast. This book is inspirational in a way to show and prove that in the end, you always find happiness in you life. I connect to this book really well because I too have had problems fitting in around the time of middle school, and was not happy, eventually everyone find their group that they fit in with and love.

The setting was outside in the wilderness, mostly near water for the duckling to swim in when need. There were also scenes that took place in two different homes by humans that stole the little duckling.

The main character in my book is the little duckling that went through his troubling time being different in color and size until he grew up finally realizing that he is a beautiful swan just like everyone, and maybe even a little better.

The struggle that the main character had to over come was the he was so different in comparison to the other ducklings. He was gray and was hatched in a bigger egg then the other ducks, and a family actually got mad because he would not hatch any eggs and did not like him for it.

The mood was sad through the book because you read about the hard times the little duckling had to go through. Then you got to the end when he realized he was a beautiful swan and he was so happy and pleased with his life which made the mood happy.

I absolutely love this book, it is a classic and it brings a warm feeling to your heart knowing that an unhappy duck, gets very happy and pleased with their life in the end. "The swan knew that it was worth having undergone all the suffering and loneliness that he had" (Pinkney, 29).

I would recommend this book to maybe 3 or 4th graders because that when children are starting to realize that they either fit in with some groups or not. It would be encouraging to hear a story that encourages the idea of being different and that everything will be okay in the end.