Today Was a Terrible Day

Second-grader Ronald Morgan is having a difficult day. It begins when he drops his pencil and things deteriorate for him as the day proceeds. With nothing going right, Ronald is feeling low and sad and unsuccessful until a note from his teacher changes everything.

Early readers are the target audience for this picture book story. With its focus on children’s self-esteem, emotions, and school issues, children in the primary grades are sure to find it relatable. The touching ending allows the young reader to discover that even the worst of days can bring something good and ensures that they will applaud Ronald’s ultimate success.

With pictures that perfectly capture Ronald’s expressions as he experiences a variety of difficult show more experiences throughout the day, this is sure to become a favorite of young readers.

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I had mixed feelings about this book after reading it. I did not like the book because I thought the plot was very negative for young children. Everything for Ronald Morgan is going terrible at school, and it continues throughout the entire book. The children bully him and the teachers are condescending, making him feel as if he is not smart. He even says “I’m in the dumb group.” The teachers always call him out and in front of the class so that he feels embarrassed and out of place. The story’s ending is also very confusing to me because the teacher gives him a note and says “Try to read it by yourself, if you can’t I’m sure your mother will help you.” The note is a very nice note that he can read and gets excited show more about, yet she delivers it so negatively. I think the only thing I liked about the book was the big idea. At the end of a terrible day, you can always find the good in a situation. show less

I liked this book for many reasons. First, I liked how descriptive the book was about Ronald Morgan’s day. The author went through each part of his day and explained why it was bad. Another reason why I liked this book was because the author made the day believable. At the end of the book, or Ronald Morgan’s school day, his teacher was able to change his mood. If a person is having a bad day, someone can immediately change your mood from bad to good. One last reason I enjoyed this book was because the way the characters acted was believable in a typical elementary school. The way the kids were described is how you would see them typically act in an actual elementary school. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and the lessons it taught.

The story follows a young boy who seems to stumble over trouble throughout his day. One bad thing after another keeps happening to him; a simple mistake such as dropping his pencil to struggling to read and feeling dumb. Just when he thought things couldn't get worse, his teacher shows him compassion and encouragement, giving him hope to face the next day. I would use this in my classroom to emphasize that we all have bad days, but we should never give up on the next. I would also use it to show that even if we feel that we cannot do something, others will always believe in you and that all people learn in various ways.

I did not like Today was a Terrible Day. I did not like the book because of the negative plot line and the bullying in the dialogue. The plot line was not engaging or exciting in any way. The majority of the book was a discussion about everything that was going wrong in Ronald’s day. The author writes, “It started when I dropped my pencil.” After that, the book was just a continuation of all the terrible things that happened to him and it was very dull to read. I also did not like the bullying in the dialogue. During recess, Tom yells, “What do you expect from that kid?” He was making fun of the fact that Ronald could not catch a ball. I think this sets a bad example for kids and they do not need to be reading about it. show more Although I did not like the book, it did have a good message. The message of the book was that you can always find the good in any bad situation. There is always a silver lining. show less

PreK-1st Grade. I love this book! Even though Snakey had a bad day, his teacher encourages him and in the end he realizes that it will be ok.

"Today was a terrible day" , tells the story of a young boy named Ronald who has a bad day at school. His day starts off with him receiving the nickname "snakey" as he had to crawl under the desk to grab his pencil. Ronald's day continues to get worse and worse as the day goes by. Near the end of the day Ronald over hears his teacher say that if he can not learn to read he will never make it to the third grade. This hit Ronald's emotion quite hard. As he left school his teacher gave him a note. The note read "Dear Ronald, I'm sorry you had a sad day. Tomorrow will be a happy because it is my birthday. You and I will make it happy." This made Ronald especially happy because he read it all by himself.
The central message of the story was show more about not letting a bad day get you down. Each day is a new chance to do some great and you never no what could happen. show less