Alicia Has a Bad Day: A Funny Picture Book for Kids (Ages 4-7) About Finding Joy When You're Grumpy

by Lisa Jahn-Clough

Meet Alicia and her trusty friend, Neptune. Alicia is usually a cheerful child who likes to dance very fast and stand on her head. What will she do when she wakes one morning feeling miserable? At first, none of Alicia's clever and quirky remedies, such

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Lisa Jahn-Clough has published picture books, early readers and young adult novels. Her work has won awards from Child Magazine, Parent’s Choice, Bank Street, Raising Readers, and Entertainment Weekly. Her upcoming book, THE KIDS OF CATTYWAMPUS STREET is released July 2021.

Lisa went to Hampshire College and has an MFA from Emerson College. She is now Associatev Professor at Rowan Univ, and also teaches at Hamline Univ. in the Writing for Children and YA low-residency program.

She lives with her husband and their Sato dog in Portland, Maine in a little yellow house in the summer, and across from a cornfield in southern New Jersey in the winter.

Reviews

[Isabel Angeles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alicia Has a Bad Day follows Alicia through her miserable day which turns around at the very end. Useful for discussions on processing emotions.

[Kiera Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is about a girl who is depressed and continues to feel sad until the very end when she goes outside to play with her dog. I think this book could use a little more description on what could make Alicia happy but I like the idea behind it. This would be good for students to learn that it is ok to be sad but that we can help them find something to make them happy.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a difficult book. Alicia is a kid that, when miserable, HER DOG HIDES FROM HER.

The reason why is hinted at when Alicia goes outside to draw, write the word LUGUBRIOUS over and over, and purposefully kills ants.

What the hell did she do to the poor little dog?

It's a scary, but truthful book.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciate that there's no cutesy happy ending to this book. Sometimes, you just have a bad day. It seemed to resonate with my 3 year old.

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

She liked the idea of Alicia stepping on ant hills and squishing them.

[jacky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this out because we have a friend by this name, but I didn't really enjoy this book. It was actually a bit scary. I understand that it is good for there to be books about feeling miserable, but when the girl says, Its dark and dreary in my heart, it started to remind me of like a serial killers journal in a horror movie. The ants crawling on her face was a bit much, too. Surprising that there was a happy ending after all that.

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned what "lugubrious" means and how thrilling it is to have my name in a book title!

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for discussions about feelings and how we handle our emotions.

[Phobean · Rating 3 out of 5]

My professor at Emerson College wrote this fun and simple ode to lugubriousness.

[Christina Bell]

Alicia is generally in a good mood but not today. Today she's miserable. Not even her dog Neptune licks her face to say good morning. Alicia goes through the day trying to get rid of her miserable mood. She smashes ant hills, she falls in the mud, she shouts as loud as she can that she is miserable. Alicia hides in a darkest space she knows. Something warm and soft comes up next to her and licks her face. She feels a little less miserable now. She goes outside with Neptune to play.