I was reading Judith Viorst's Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day to my second graders this week when I had one of those Did-anyone-else-hear-that? moments every teacher experiences on a daily if not hourly basis.
This story has been winning hearts since 1972 as readers can’t help but relate with Alexander who has a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day from the moment he gets out of bed. It’s a classic, to say the least, alongside Viorst’s other titles.
When I read it this year, though, a comment from one of my bright, witty boys had my heart chuckling. Hopefully you’ll appreciate it like I did.
The story begins, I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there's gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
It continues on as he gets squished in the backseat of his carpool, is forced to wear the railroad-train pajamas he hates and is even subjected to seeing kissing on TV. What a terrible day.
During his less-than-perfect day, Alexander narrates, …the elevator door closed on my foot and while we were waiting for my mom to go get the car Anthony made me fall where it was muddy and then when I started crying because of the mud Nick said I was a crybaby and while I was punching Nick for saying crybaby my mom came back with the car and scolded me for being muddy and fighting.
As my students sat crisscross applesauce on the carpet, I heard from the front row, “He was framed!”
“Why do you say that, Taylor?”
“Well, when there is more than just one person involved in something bad and only one of them is caught and punished, it means they were framed.”
Classic. I love my job.
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