Delia's Dull Day: An Incredibly Boring Story

A great book all about perception. Delia is a young girl who is convinced every day of her life is dull, boring, and uneventful. Her attentions are on her accidents, handheld electrical devices, day dreaming, doodling, repetitive practices, personal discomforts, and daily routines. If Delia would look up and take notice of the world around her she would discover the joys, wonders, and excitement waiting to be observed just by her.

Myer tells a great story with both word and illustration. The text is easy to read and the illustrations are 90% of the story, so take your time gazing upon each page, as each page will tell a story all of its own. Delia uses the word boring twice, once at the beginning and once at the end. This is a reminder that children who use the word throughout their day do not know the definition of boring and may need to broaden their vocabulary and their interests.

Adults and children alike will learn a valuable lesson from reading this book: Take time to look up from your cell phone, walk barefoot in the park, watch children playing and join them, look for both the small and simple wonders as well as the big and complex. The world has much to offer both the young and the old. Encourage children with the “bored syndrome” to think outside the box of normal and every day activities that they usually find themselves engaged in (such as video games, T.V., and text messaging).

They might be surprised by the sort of day they can create. Your day will be whatever you make it to be. If you wake and say the day is boring, the day will be boring. If you wake and say, “What a grand day today will be!”, then today will be a grand day.
The message of the book blends beautifully with the illustrations to make a point and entertain very well. This is one that will be read and re-read many times.

PreS-K–Delia takes readers through her previous day, explaining all the ways in which it was so boring, but the art tells the real story. While she is eating her cereal, two elephants walk through her living room, but she is so busy worrying about spilling milk that she doesn’t notice them. Instances like this happen on every page, giving readers glances at pirates, gorillas, aliens, hot-air balloons, and more. Myer integrates his text done in various fonts, sizes, and colors with his watercolor illustrations, making the words feel as though they are flowing into the pictures. This charming story with its hilarious art is perfect for group sharing. Children will love that they can see what Delia can’t and will feel they’ve been let in on a secret. That device alone makes this a great book that will see lots of repeated readings.

An amusing visual riff on the frequent refrain “nothing ever happens to me.”

Delia recounts the details of her incredibly dull yesterday. While her words describe a pedestrian day from breakfast to bedtime, the illustrations tell a completely different story. While Delia’s eyes are either trained down on her cereal or a handheld device or looking straight ahead, lots of interesting things are happening around her. Delia complains, “NOTHING happened during my breakfast, except I spilled some milk.” As she struggles with the milk, two elephants parade unseen down her hallway. Later, wildly shaped hot-air balloons float by while she checks her phone and waits for the bus. A pirate rides to school with her, and an astronaut floats by her math-class window while Delia doodles. The droll, first-person point of view carries the sarcastic, bored tone to its humorous extreme. The message could not be clearer: Look up and see the interesting world around you! This lesson is delivered in such a winning, funny package that it hardly seems like a lesson at all. Closer to Where’s Waldo in their invitation to look closely than a pat lesson on awareness, these lively, cartoony illustrations offer many chortles per page and invite amused readers to return to find more “boring” details in Delia’s life.

Young readers will chuckle at Delia’s cluelessness—and maybe think twice about their own assumptions. (Picture book. 4-9)