The Sorely Trying Day

Father has had a sorely trying day, but what he finds when he comes home isn't going to make it any better. The cat is on top of the grandfather clock, and the dog is barking and trying to get at her, and all the children are "striking each other and speaking in unpleasantly harsh voices." Thus begins Russell and Lillian Hoban's wonderfully comic and deliciously quaint story of what lengths kids and adults will go to in order to pass the buck, before everyone owns up to having a part in the general mess and in the end things are fine. Unless, that is, it all begins again. . . .

The Sorely Trying Day is a classic picture book in which the beloved authors of Bread and Jam for Frances once again prove their power to both delight and instruct.