judith viorst alexander and the terrible horrible

One was about sibling rivalry called I'll Fix Anthony. At soccer?' And he said, 'No, story time.''īy 1972, Viorst had already written a couple of children's books. I killed my knee!' I said, 'Oh my god, poor baby. 'The famous klutz story about Alexander is him limping home from school one day and saying 'My knee. Judith - who seems a lot younger than her 91 years - says Alexander was 'something of a klutz' when he was little. Lima beans? 'I don't think I had any direct hostility to lima beans.'Īlexander says 'conceptually,' his mom got it right. Gum in his hair? 'Never happened,' says Alexander. NPR fact-checked with Viorst's primary source. 'He was always chugging behind his brothers saying, 'Wait for me guys! Wait for me guys!''īut that one day in this little boy's life is a cascade of bad karma. The real Alexander is her third son, 'and I guess in a way the most challenging of them because he did not want to be left out of anything,' she reminisces, sitting on the now grown-up Alexander's front porch in Washington, D.C. Viorst didn't need to look far for inspiration. Teachers have even used poor Alexander's misadventures to teach kids about cause and effect and ethics. The book is so popular, Viorst's string of sad adjectives entered the vernacular it's been used to describe lousy days, weeks and years far and wide, from political leaders to corporations.

Written by Judith Viorst with illustrations by Ray Cruz, the best seller has been made into a musical and a Hollywood movie. On June 1, 1972, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day was first published. Alexander is still easy to recognize 50 years after he entered the world of children's books. He wakes up with gum in his hair, slips on his skateboard, gets snubbed by his best friend - and it just gets worse.

Judith viorst alexander and the terrible horrible