Johnny Lion's Bad Day

by Edith Thacher Hurd, Clement Hurd (Illustrator)

Johnny Lion has a bad cold and the medicine he takes and the dreams he has are both terrible.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction

Library Binding

First published June 16, 1970

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Johnny Lion has a cold and has to stay in bed all day. He occasionally drowses and has some bad dreams, but it's unclear if he is having fever dreams or if they are induced by the medicine his parents keep pouring down his throat -- cough syrup in the 1960s when this book was written could contain a large percentage of alcohol and/or other substances now strictly controlled.

My daughter insisted on a ritual of me reading her books about colds, illness, and check-ups whenever she got sick, and this was one of the regulars, along with some Pooh and Berenstain books. She liked this one, but no matter how many times I read it, I never grew fond of it. Too many dream sequences for my taste.

[Elisabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Should be called Johnny Lion's Fever Dreams or Johnny Lion's LSD Trip. Wow! One might conclude that medicine is bad because it gives you bad dreams. A book about being sick is good. A book about being comforted after bad dreams is good. But both together make it problematic.

It's especially fun because it's done by the same illustrator as Good Night Moon and Runaway Bunny. Be sure to read these together, so your child will have nightmares of those rabbits coming after them, just like Johnny Lion! AAAAHHHH!!

[Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like how Johnny lion got better the next morning

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little Johnny Lion had a bad cold and had to stay in bed all day. It seemed that every time he was given medicine he had a strange dream. Cute imaginative story. 64 pages.

[Colette Denali · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some childhood books are best left in childhood.

[Briana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Long and in that category of levelled readers that aren't really that interesting, no offense, so the best you can say about them is they help kids practice reading.

[Penny · Rating 2 out of 5]

didn't like

[Emily Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of my favorite books as a kid. But the owl was really scary!

[Emily Goodin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was terrble! It was very outdated and the pictures were just bad. I don't see myself using this book anytime in my own classroom because it is dull and boring!

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Johnny is sick, he is having bad dreams, he talks to his parents about them and is reassured. Early reader

[Amanda_DJ n' Zac · Rating 3 out of 5]

DJ read this with his Auntie today, while she visited... this kid will beg everyone to read with him! :)

[Markus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Johnny is stuck in bed sick, but the worst part is that the medicine is causing him to hallucinate.

[Lillie · Rating 2 out of 5]

No favorite part.