A Difficult Day. Rev. ed.

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Young Melinda is not having a good day. Maybe it’s because she
didn’t get enough sleep the night before. Maybe it’s because a
rotten kid named Harold started a fight with her at school and they both
got into trouble with the teacher. Maybe it’s because she fell in a
puddle and her mother made her take a bath when she got home. Whatever
the cause, Melinda is now sulking in her room with the door slammed
shut. “Don’t you try and come in,” she says “I don’t like you
anymore. I don’t like anybody!” Belinda’s mother decides to bake
cookies and cool off. Unfortunately, when she takes a plate of milk and
cookies up to Melinda’s room, she discovers that the “difficult
day” child is gone!

Eugenie Fernandes based her story on a real incident taken from her
full-time career—motherhood. Using humor and empathy, she faithfully
captures the essence of a typical household tempest in a teapot. Her
illustrations nimbly jump from realistic depictions of a modern suburban
home to the surreal landscape of young Melinda’s imagination. The
subtheme of this terrific book is that both parents and kids can have
difficult days. Highly recommended.