Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and other children’s books

The Caldecott Prize-winning book by American artist Aaron Becker, Britain’s premier award for children’s book illustrators, has no words, only pictures. You can compose a story based on pictures, change the details in it, do it together with your child or race, compose a whole cycle and “read” it to each other before going to bed.

Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 40 p.

A mischievous witch teaches her black cat magic, and he is happy to learn: how can you achieve the love of a beautiful white cat without a love potion? The little Italian fairy tale is translated into verse, and its main lesson seems to be more weighty than any magic spells: the more love we radiate ourselves, the more it becomes, including in us.

Translation from Italian by Tatyana Tsukanova.

Polyandria, 24 p.

“Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” by Judith Wiorst

The sweater was soaked in the sink, my mother forgot to put dessert in, the store only had white sneakers, and only beans for dinner. Little Alexander’s day was so unfortunate that he decided to leave for Australia. But his mother, American psychologist and children’s writer Judith Wiorst, said that such days happen to children and adults, in Australia and anywhere. Let’s tell the children about this, it will greatly support them. And the next day can be made more fun, for example, by revisiting Miguel Arteta’s family comedy of the same name (2014).

Translation from English by Tatyana Nosova.

Career Press, 32 p.

Each mamoru (these are such furry creatures with a long tail) has its own island, which he must find. It’s like for a person to find their dream. The teacher tells each mamoru what he must do. To learn, for example, an island by water, by sand, and ours should see his island in a dream. And now our mamoru is swimming on a whale and cannot sleep at all. And he doesn’t dream. And he doesn’t know what to do anymore. Then the whale amused and supported him, and he began to dream. I saw the island, I was able to examine it, in order to find out later. It’s good when you have such a useful dream: you wake up and understand what needs to be done. I remember a dream in which I dreamed that I lied to my mother, but in a dream I realized that you still couldn’t lie. And when she woke up, she said to her mother: “I realized that I don’t need to lie.” To be honest, the book is both sad and funny, its mood is mixed, very exciting. And in the end, I smiled for a long time when mamoru found his island, reached what he had been going for so long! After all, otherwise he would have turned into a stone and lay useless to anyone. People, of course, do not turn into stones, but if you do not achieve your goal, you will think that you were just lazy and scold yourself.