A Good Day

A Good Day has quickly become one of my favorite picture books. This book is short and simple. This review contains more words than the book itself. But it also contains so much truth! Each character only has two sentences, but as a whole, it weaves a beautiful story of loss and redemption. It could be summarized with the following "morals", but the genius of this story is that there is no moral shared, taught, or implied. It simply presents the information and allows you to understand it how you will.

A bad day or a good day is all in how you look at it.
A bad situation may not be what it seems.
Sometimes your struggles lead to success.
Sometimes you experience loss because life has something better in store for you.

My sincere hope is show more that as I read this to my daughter on a regular basis, she will internalize the idea that one should always have hope that something good is coming just ahead. show less

I found this book to be very well conceived and to have a positive message for children; perseverance through tumultuous times will eventually yield a positive result. Events that hinder the day of bird, fox, dog, and squirrel are forgotten as time brings about good things, revitalizing their spirit. At the end, the book relates to the child, as a little girl becomes joyous having found a flower and calls to her mother, claiming “today was a good day.” I found the simplicity of storyline to fit the artwork perfectly, giving an impression of life as a very tranquil phenomenon.

Wise and effective. Could be read as a fable for those melodramatic young teens... you know the ones, who claim that their lives aren't worth living if their parents don't let them wear lipstick. Could even, conceivably, help ppl who are getting treatment for bipolar but want one more resource in their toolbox. But still, totally accessible to the very youngest wobblies.

Again, Henkes amazes me.

My kids loved the colorful pictures in this book. They loved the fact that animals were it's subject. We read it a lot. I loved the message in this book. So often, kids this age become distraught over what seems to them to be the end of the world. This is a great book to open discussion about the silver lining in most things.

To read our full review, go to The Reading Tub®.

This sweet book begins by showing several animals having a bad day, but eventually their day gets better. A yellow bird lost his favorite feather, but it was found on the ground by a little girl and it completely made her day. This book shows that one's loss may be another's treasure.

A bad day turns into a good day in this short story. When a yellow bird looses his feathers, the little white dog gets all tangles, and the orange fox looses his mother, things eventually turn around for the better. A discovery of love, patience, and a different point of view turns this bad day into a great day for these lovely animals. I think this a cute little book to read if you are having a bad day and want to see the best out of it. I think this teaches the importance that everyone has those bad days, but they do turn around and get better in the end.

Birth to 3. 2005 Caldecott winner Kevin Henkes delivers a meaningful and heart warming board book in A Good Day. In it, a bird looses his feather, a dog's leash gets tangled in a fence, a young fox can't find his mother, and a little squirrel looses her nut. But it all works out for each animal. Then a little girl finds the feather and tells her mother that it is a good day. This is a truly sweet and touching board book. Henkes' simple, but precise words are sure to speak directly to little ones. Painted with watercolors, his illustrations are impressionistic in the background. However he also uses thick black lines to clearly delineate his characters, their expressions, and details in the forefront. Henkes' use of soft colors welcomes show more the reader in, and the colors' brightness contributes to the positive thematic progression and cheerful ending. This board book is highly recommended for public library collections and is a great read aloud for a toddler and preschool story-time. There probably isn't a Henkes book to pass up, and this board book is certainly no exception. A Good Day has the quality of easily becoming a childhood favorite. show less