Novels aren’t the only books to become successful as big screen adaptations. Judi Barrett’s Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are, and John Nickle’s The Ant Bully are some recent examples of children’s picture books to be brought to life on the big screen. This fall, another classic children’s book is headed our way: Judith Viorst’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day will be hitting theaters on October 10.

In the book, the audience reads along as young boy Alexander is subjected to disappointment after disappointment over the course of an entire day, during which nothing goes his way and he never gets anything that he wants or expects. While Alexander’s disappointments are largely due to his incessant sense of entitlement, the lesson to be learned is that everyone has bad days, as his mother assures him at the end of the story, and since there is really no way around it, you may as well try to not fight it.

The film version of this story, as often happens in a book to screen adaptation, becomes much more complex, as we discover that, while Alexander is having his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, his entire family is also having their own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days as well.

Alexander will be played by newcomer Ed Oxenbould, and is joined by Steve Carrel (The Office) and Jennifer Garner (The Odd Life of Timothy Green) as his parents, Ben and Kelly. Alexander’s brother Anthony and sister Emily will be played by Dylan Minette and Kerris Dorsey.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day opens Friday, October 10.

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