About the Author

Lisa Jahn-Clough has written and illustrated many picture books for young children, including Alicia Has a Bad Day, My Friend and I, Missing Molly, and Simon and Molly Plus Hester. She is the author of the Green Light reader series Petal and Poppy and has published several young adult novels and a recent chapter book. She is associate professor of creative writing at Rowan University and also works as a mentor in the Hamline University Low-Residency MFA program in writing for children and young adults. You can find out more at lisajahnclough.com.

Reviews

"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 narrator." - Publishers Weekly

PreS-Gr 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