Bad Day

The opening page of this droll book says it all: ``Hate this day.'' Nothing is going right for this little boy, who does not mince words. (Indeed, almost no page contains more than five words.) He also hates his toys, the food served at dinner, his big brother, his little brother and his dad. When his distraught mother screams ``Go away!,'' he decides to do just that--packing his suitcase, strapping on a pair of wings and taking off into the sky. ``Is this away?'' he asks a fish and a bird, but neither gives him a satisfactory answer. He next encounters an owl, who tells him that ``away'' is not a place, it is a feeling--``a lonely feeling.'' When the owl asks the boy if he loves anyone, he realizes that he does, and flies home. Demeyer's cartoonlike drawings add just the right amount of humor to Couzyn's simple yet uplifting story, which will help children and their parents deal with those inevitable bad days. Ages 4-6. (May)