Bad days happen to all of us. Everyone experiences tough times, even little ones. But what to do when you are feeling down? In the book Bad Day written by popular children's book author Ruby Roth, we follow the story of little boy Hennie. His day involves a cascade of things going wrong. First, he had a bumpy ride, lumpy sock, then it was getting worse, a lost spoon and upset stomach. Later, a yelling teacher demanding attention in her class and award fall in front of Hennie's classmates!
The boy wants to be alone to cope with his feelings. He is grumpy and dumpy, asking everyone do not disturb and stand out. Hennie draws an unhappy face on a paper bag and puts it on of his head. The struggles are real, the boy moves around the room trying to find peace and calm down. Then he tries to find solution to his frustration like disappearing for a year and exaggerating things. Then the boy walks through his bad day and realizes that he really had tough day and he should not be hard on himself. Runaway is not a solution and may be treating things differently can help.
So Hennie takes first step and draws Smiley Face on his paper bag, then he declares that he is strong enough to deal with his feelings. The most astonishing fact the little boy gets from his bad day experience is that he can control his feelings. He decides how he wants to feel now, tomorrow and in the future no matter what is going outside, what he hears or sees.
Teddy liked the story so much, kids need to learn how deal with bad days and cope with negative thoughts. I think the author perfectly caught the moments of struggles and feeling down. There are also grey and color pages to reflect the boy's mood. We liked how the story ended and what Hennie learned from his bad day and shared with us:
- You need some calm time to think about your bad day and how you feel
- You should look at your day from another perspective, re-live or recap like see it from another point of view as if it was another person
- Be gentle on yourself
- Only you can control your feelings no matter what other people say or do
- Take actions, it can be simple one like drawing a smiley face on a paper
- Bad Days teaches you some good lessons and you are getting stronger
.
