This is a picture book about Alexander who is having the absolute worst day ever! I used to love when Grandot read me books from this series. According to Fountas & Pinnell's guidelines, I would put this book on a level I. This is because it has characteristics matching other books in this level. For example, this story includes elaborate episodes, it is between 10-40 pages, dialogue is used throughout, pictures enhance meaning, mutiple-syllable words, longer paragraphs and sentences, and characters and events require interpretation.
An activity that could go along with this book would be to examine every single one of Alexander's problems (reasons why he is having a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day) and brainstorm solutions to these problems! We would examine each problem as a class and decide which ones were real problems (Alexander moving to a new home) and which problems were not *real* problems that should ruin his day (Alexander stepping in gum).