Alicia Has a Bad Day [Hardcover]

Lisa Jahn-Clough (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

Alicia, a usually cheerful little girl, has an unusally bad day. Her quirky remedies for a bad day, and her final cure, though, are sure to bring happy smiles to readers everywhere.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Deliberately childlike paintings put a comic edge on a terrible, rotten, very bad day. Those of, shall we say, artistic temperaments may find a kindred spirit in this debut book's scowling, yellow-haired narrator, Alicia, who wakes up one day in inexplicable misery. First she sulks around the house ("After I mope I lie on the floor and stare at the ceiling. The cracks make faces at me"), then she maliciously stomps on ants outdoors, where a gray cloud threatens to block out a frowning sun. Surrounded by a violent, slashy purple-and-black aura, Alicia writes the word "lugubrious" in her notebook ("Lugubrious is my favorite miserable word. It means dark and dreary"); young vocabulary enthusiasts will enjoy being handed a 50-cent word, the poor definition notwithstanding. Alicia's bleak humor, which lasts until her orange dog cheers her with a friendly lick, grows tedious, but Jahn-Clough's simplistic brushwork, roughly hewn in straight-from-the-tube colors, wryly conveys surliness. Spending time with Alicia might distract a moody reader from an impending tantrum, or simply serve as a reminder that everyone has bad days. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 1-Alicia awakens to a very bad day and nothing she tries, such as playing loud music and dancing, stamping on ant hills, or moping, seems to help. Finally, she goes outside and is caught in a rain storm, whereupon she comes home and crawls under her bed, which is "the darkest, dreariest place I know." It is there that her dog finds her and licks her face, making her feel better. The theme is an admirable one, but the execution isn't quite successful. The bright cartoon illustrations are childlike, but Alicia's activities and gloom lack the appeal of the situations and emotions that Alexander experienced in Judith Viorst's Alexander & the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Atheneum, 1972). Children may not understand the "faces on the ceiling" or the illustration of the little girl in a dark cave talking about it being "dark and dreary in my heart." The book just doesn't quite catch the spirit of a child's bad day.
Margaret C. Howell, West Springfield Elementary School, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (September 26, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039569454X
• ISBN-13: 978-0395694541
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 8.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,265,484 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lisa Jahn-Clough grew up on the coast of Maine to a painter mother and zoologist father. She knew from a very early age that she was going to become a writer and an artist, and started making and selling her first hand-made books in 1990. She now has thirteen books published (picture books and young adult novels).
Lisa has always been interested in learning so she did her undergraduate studies at Hampshire College, and went on to receive her MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. She then become a professor. She was writer-in-residence for nine years at Emerson College, chair of Illustration at the Maine College of Art, and taught at the Vermont College Writing for Children program. Currently Lisa is faculty at Hamline University MFA Writing for Children department.
Lisa lives with her partner, the author/illustrator Ed Briant, and their two dogs in Savannah, Georgia and Portland, Maine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a picture book worth reading, September 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Alicia Has a Bad Day (Hardcover)

I thought this book dealt really well with the issue of kids having bad days. I read this to my first grade class and they had a lot to say about how they deal with their own bad days. It's great to see a book (besides Alexander and the terrible, no good, very bad day) addressing the fact that young people have bad days, too! Alicia gets herself out of her bad day on her own accord. She is a great, spunky character. Her dog is a treat, too. I hope Jahn-Clough will write more about Alicia. She could be an important character and role model.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delight!, March 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Alicia Has a Bad Day (Hardcover)

This book is a delight for readers of all ages. The pictures are vibrant and energetic. The things Alicia does are the same things I do when I have a bad day (except for smooshing ant hills). I want everyone to read this book!!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lugubrious, November 14, 2003

By 

Liz (Rockville, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alicia Has a Bad Day (Paperback)

Where else will you find the word lugubrious, especially in a book for children? This book is excellent for all the reasons stated by the other reviews, as well as a vocabulary builder!