Baby book review: Tricky’s Bad Day by Alison Lester

Baby librarian Tilly and her mum Jen review the award-winning picture book Tricky’s Bad Day by Alison Lester.

Tilly reviews Tricky’s Bad Day

This book really speaks to my soul. It’s about Tricky, who is having a very bad day where everything goes wrong. It starts being bad from the minute he wakes up and then it basically continues being an awful day. He spills milk and he trips and his Mum has to leave and getting dressed is hard and his sister (who has my name! his sister is named Matilda and is called Tilly! that’s me!) doesn’t play with him right. But the day is made better when he goes outside with his dad and they splash in puddles and it’s windy and rainy and they climb Tricky’s favourite tree and finally everything is better. I know how he feels. Well, I can’t climb trees yet. But I know that when I have a bad day, one of the things that makes it all better is going outside. Outside and then cuddles fix everything.

Jen reviews Tricky’s Bad Day

This book is the 2019 winner of the Book of the Year for Early Childhood CBCA (Children’s Book Council of Australia) Award, and another delightful book from one of Australia’s best loved children’s authors, Alison Lester. I love this book, and it is another one of my favourites of the year. It’s about the messy daily life of a young family, where parents have to go out and do other things and messes are made in the kitchen and you don’t always get along with your sister and things are just FRUSTRATING when you’re small. But it’s okay, because bad days can be turned into good days with some wild adventures and rain and splashing and secret cubby holes in a favourite tree. I love the Australian English in this (sultanas, jumper, porridge, Mum, lolly), mostly because I don’t get enough Australian English in my everyday life anymore.

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