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I Should Have Stayed in Bed!
Although Sam's day begins with everything going wrong, he finds a way to turn things around.
48 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1965
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 9, 2014
"Somedays it doesn't pay to get up. Some days you can't do anything right" (5).
Published in 1965 around the same time as Keats' _Snowy Day_, author Joan M.Lexau's picture book, with illustrations by well known cartoonist Syd Hoff, tells the tale of young Sam's bad day. He has a bad day because he puts his shoes on the wrong feet, accidently wearing his cub scout uniform on the wrong day, breaking his shoelaces, eating soggy sugar in his cereal, missing Albert because he was running late, losing a nickel in the sewer, accidently hitting Amy Lou with his notebook, getting told off by his teacher for getting dizzy due to spinning around in circles, misreading "saw" as "was" when reading out loud for his class, and accidently wearing slippers to school. Sam has dark skin and coarse hair, while his best friend, Albert, is illustrated as white, while classmate Amy Lou, whom contributes to Sam's lousy day, has dark skin. The children are all presented looking very neat, wearing pressed dresses, ties, and button-up shirts. Although he ends by getting detention for being late, his best friend Albert also gets detention with him and Amy Lou gets detention for pointing out the fact that Sam was wearing slippers. This prompts Sam to think, "I looked at Albert. Albert looked at me. It didn't look like such a bad day after all" (48). Like _The Snowy Day_, this is another picture book that depicts an unremarkable portrait of a black protagonist, but it is not significant beyond this.
Published in 1965 around the same time as Keats' _Snowy Day_, author Joan M.Lexau's picture book, with illustrations by well known cartoonist Syd Hoff, tells the tale of young Sam's bad day. He has a bad day because he puts his shoes on the wrong feet, accidently wearing his cub scout uniform on the wrong day, breaking his shoelaces, eating soggy sugar in his cereal, missing Albert because he was running late, losing a nickel in the sewer, accidently hitting Amy Lou with his notebook, getting told off by his teacher for getting dizzy due to spinning around in circles, misreading "saw" as "was" when reading out loud for his class, and accidently wearing slippers to school. Sam has dark skin and coarse hair, while his best friend, Albert, is illustrated as white, while classmate Amy Lou, whom contributes to Sam's lousy day, has dark skin. The children are all presented looking very neat, wearing pressed dresses, ties, and button-up shirts. Although he ends by getting detention for being late, his best friend Albert also gets detention with him and Amy Lou gets detention for pointing out the fact that Sam was wearing slippers. This prompts Sam to think, "I looked at Albert. Albert looked at me. It didn't look like such a bad day after all" (48). Like _The Snowy Day_, this is another picture book that depicts an unremarkable portrait of a black protagonist, but it is not significant beyond this.
November 29, 2020
Tonight we read I Should Have Stayed in Bed by Joan M. Lexus, Illustrated by Betsy Day as included in Childcraft Time to Read (Vol. 2) 1988 Edition. I'd love to see it illustrated by Syd Hoff, but enjoyed Betsy Day. Sometimes we need to start afresh. Sometimes we need to cry it out. Sometimes a laugh will help but always a friend is nice. A good going to school read from days gone by.
November 16, 2024
I stumbled across this book and the cover I saw (of a boy losing a coin down a drain) rang a bell, so I am sure I read this as a child. We've all had those days where they start out wrong and get worse, and this was an amusing illustration of that. Loved the illustrations by Syd Hoff.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews