Best books for a bad mood

It’s mid-March, which means spring is coming and birds are tweeting and we should all feel happiness, joy and light—right?

Wrong. Well, sometimes wrong. When the temperature drops back below 30, and I step in a mud puddle up to my ankle on the way to my car, and I have writer’s block and too much laundry to do and I’m overtired—I’m not exactly Snow White singing to the birds and chipmunks as they pleasantly land on my shoulder.

And here’s the thing, we adults often believe we’re the only ones entitled to a bad mood, but kids have their grumpy days too. Days when they must slog to the bus in the early morning drizzle, miss recess, endure cafeteria chili and be expected to spell “supersede” as a third-grader.

The same way “Oscar The Grouch” on Sesame Street exemplified the contrast between positive vs. negative emotions, a picture book about bad moods can help children sort out their own occasional grumpiness.

Here are some of the very best bad-mood books.

“Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,” by Judith Viorst; illustrated by Ray Cruz (Atheneum)

Perhaps the most classic and best-known of the bad mood books—this is the story of Alexander: A little boy who, from the time he wakes in the morning, to the time he lays his head down on his pillow at night, has lousy stuff happen to him. Not irreparably bad—just low-grade rotten.

On the way to school Alexander doesn't get the window seat in the carpool. At school, his teacher criticizes him. Later at the dentist's he finds out he has a cavity, then he gets in trouble for fighting with his brother. And the day goes on like this, with one mishap after another, until Alexander announces that he’s moving to Australia. The book ends with his mother's assurance that everyone has bad days, even people who live down under.

Ms. Viorst captures a child’s utter crankiness with perfect pitch, while still garnering sympathy for the main character from her readers. Children reading Alexander’s tale of woe will feel reassured that they’re not the only ones who feel grumpy or have a lousy day once in awhile.

A slightly more contemporary version of this theme comes in: “One Of Those Days,” by Amy Krouse Rosenthal; illustrated by Rebecca Doughty. (Putnam) More a laundry list of variations on a bad day than a classic narrative, Rosenthal’s litany of misery includes a “Feeling Left Out Day,” a “Nobody’s Listening To You Day,” and an “Itchy Sweater Day.”

Doughty’s quirky illustrations fit the subject matter well, and the book ends on an optimistic (if somewhat predictable) note, that each bad day leads to an opportunity for a better one.

Finally, there’s nothing that will put you in a bad mood faster than a “bad hair day,” and that’s just what happens to Lionel the Lion in Satoshi Kitamora’s “What’s Wrong With My Hair?” (HMH Books)

Lionel is going to a party, so he must do something about his bad hair. He finds a barber who has lots of crazy suggestions for hairstyles, from dandelion hair to octopus hair! Will the disgruntled Lion find the hairstyle that’s right for him? There’s a surprise ending, here, and I won’t ruin it, but I will say that the board book format and silly text-bubbled illustrations will have little readers giggling out loud.