A Terrible, Horrible, No Good Media Trend

Today on Word of Mouth, professor Mary Ann Cappiello spoke with Virginia about trends in children’s literature. In a recent issue of Newsweek, Seth Colter Walls wrote about another trend related to kid lit: reporters’ use of the title refrain from Judith Viorst’s 1972 picture book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

Walls found close to 50 uses of “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day” in news articles since 2007. Intrigued, I did a quick search of my own, and discovered the catchy phrase in an AP piece about a spring training game between the Marlins and the Cardinals, a column on health care reform by U.S. News and World Report’s Michael Barone, and a blog post by Zach Carter at Talking Points Memo Café on the bank bailout plan.

According to Walls, there were very few references to Viorst’s book until recently. He spoke to the author, who told him it’s simple: kids who grew up loving Alexander, who identified with his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day are “running the world now.”
What are you reading to your kids that has a catchy refrain? What book from your childhood comes to mind as you go about running the world? Let us know.