The Backward Day

A classic picture book by a Caldecott Medal-winning team about a very funny day that moves in reverse.

Imagine your whole day lived backward, from beginning to end. When you got up, you’d put on your jacket, then your shirt and pants, and over those your underwear, because after all, backward is backward, and on a backward day backward is the way everything has to be. You’d walk downstairs backward and sit on your chair backward with your back to the table, and when your parents greeted you in the morning you’d say, of course, “Good night.” But how long can a backward day go on? Just long enough for a smart kid to reverse the spell he’s cast on the whole household and return everything to normal. The Backward Day, a delightfully stylish picture book by the Caldecott Prize–winning team of Marc Simont and Ruth Krauss, brings to life a humorous and engaging reversal of ordinary reality that will enchant young children, as well parents.

Ruth Krauss (1901–1993), a member of the experimental Writer's Laboratory at the Bank Street School in New York City in the 1940s, imaginatively used humor and invented words to create some of the very first books for children that highlighted a child's inner life. She collaborated with some of the greatest illustrators in children's literature, including Maurice Sendak and her husband, Crockett Johnson.

Marc Simont (1915–2013) illustrated nearly one hundred books, working with authors such as Margaret Wise Brown, James Thurber, and Marjorie Weinman Sharmat (on the Nate the Great series). Simont received the Caldecott Medal for his illustrations to A Tree Is Nice by Janice May Udry. He collaborated with Ruth Krauss on The Backward Day and The Happy Day, a Caldecott Honor Book.