science

Judith Viorst

Judith Viorst is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Judith Viorst rather than just read about it. In short: Judith Viorst ( vee-ORST; née Stahl; born February 2, 1931) is an American writer, newspaper journalist, and psychoanalysis researcher. She is known for her humorous observational poetry and for her children's literature.

Key takeaways

Judith Viorst belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Judith Viorst to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Judith Viorst from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Judith Viorst ( vee-ORST; née Stahl; born February 2, 1931) is an American writer, newspaper journalist, and psychoanalysis researcher. She is known for her humorous observational poetry and for her children's literature. This includes The Tenth Good Thing About Barney (about the death of a pet) and the Alexander series of short picture books, which includes Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (1972), which has sold over two million copies. Viorst is a 1952 graduate of the Newark College of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. In 1968, she signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. In the latter part of the 1970s, after two decades of writing for children and adults, Viorst turned to the study of Freudian psychology. In 1981, she became a research graduate at Washington Psychoanalytic Institute after six years of study.

Early life A native of Newark, New Jersey, Viorst was raised in a Jewish family in Maplewood, New Jersey, and attended Columbia High School. A graduate of the class of 1948, she was inducted into the school's hall of fame in 1990.

Writing

Writing for children Among Viorst's books for children is the "Alexander" series (including Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day), whose narrator is a young boy who lives with his parents and two brothers, Anthony and Nick, who are named after Viorst's own three sons. Viorst's book Sad Underwear (published in 1995) is a collection of poems that examines a wide variety of feelings and experiences from a child's point of view. Her verses are accompanied by black and white illustrations by Richard Hull.

Writing for adults Viorst's books for adults include nonfiction psychology books such as Grown-up Marriage, Imperfect Control, and Necessary Losses. She has written nine books of poetry including Unexpectedly Eighty and Other Adaptations, When Did I Stop Being Twenty and Other Injustices: Selected Poems from Single to Mid-Life, and People and other Aggravations. Viorst is also a newspaper columnist and has written frequently for The New York Times and The Washington Post, and has been a contributing editor to Redbook magazine. Viorst also penned the musical Love & Shrimp with Shelly Markam. The Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati hosted a performance of Love & Shrimp, starring Deb Girdler, Pamela Myers and Shelley Bamberger, in the spring of 1999.

Personal life Viorst lives in Washington, D.C. Her late husband, political writer Milton Viorst, died of COVID-19 in 2022. They have three grown sons: Anthony, Nicholas, and Alexander; and seven grandchildren. Viorst received the 2011 Foremother Award for Lifetime Achievement from the National Research Center for Women & Families.

Selected works The Wonderful World of Science, edited by Shirley Moore and Viorst (Bantam Books, 1961) — science experiments and recreations Projects: Space (Washington Square Books, 1962) [1] 150 Science Experiments Step-by-step, illus. Dennis Telesford (Bantam, 1963) [2] The Natural World: A guide to North American wildlife (Bantam, 1965) [3] The Village Square, illus. Tom Ballenger (Coward-McCann, 1966) [4] The Changing Earth, illus. Feodor Rimsky (Bantam, 1967) [5] Sunday Morning: a story, illus. Hilary Knight (Harper & Row, 1968)

For children I'll Fix Anthony, illus. Arnold Lobel (1969), Harper & Row, ISBN 0-06-026306-7 Try It Again, Sam: Safety When You Walk, illus. Paul Galdone (1970) My Mama Says there Aren't any Zombies, Ghosts, Vampires, Creatures, Demons, Monsters, Fiends, Goblins, or Things, illus. Kay Chorao (1973) The Tenth Good Thing About Barney, illus. Erik Blegvad (1987) The Good-bye Book, illus. Kay Chorao (1988) Super-Completely and Totally the Messiest, illus. Robin Preiss Glasser (2001) Just in Case, illus. Diana Cain Bluthenthal (2006) And Two Boys Booed, illus. Sophie Blackall (2014)

Poems for Children and Their Parents If I Were in Charge of the World and Other Worries: Poems for Children and their Parents, illus. Lynne Cherry (1981) Sad Underwear and Other Complications: More Poems for Children and Their Parents, illus. Richard Hull (1995)

Alexander Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, illustrated by Ray Cruz (1972), New York: Atheneum Books, ISBN 0-689-70428-3 Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday illus. Ray Cruz (1977), Atheneum, ISBN 978-0-689-30602-0 Alexander, Who Is Not (Do You Hear Me? I Mean It!) Going to Move illus. Robin Preiss Glasser "in the style of Ray Cruz" (1995), Atheneum, ISBN 0-689-31958-4 Alexander, Who's Trying His Best to Be the Best Boy Ever illus. Isidre Monés "in the style of Ray Cruz" (2014), Atheneum, ISBN 978-1-48142353-3 Omnibus edition: Absolutely, Positively Alexander: The Complete Stories

Related titles Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day: A Musical Alexander and the Wonderful, Marvelous, Excellent, Terrific Ninety Days: An Almost Completely Honest Account of What Happened to Our Family When Our Youngest came to Live with Us for Three Months (2007) — an adult memoir of Judith Viorst and her real son, Alexander

Lulu Lulu and the Brontosaurus, illus. Lane Smith (2010), Atheneum, ISBN 978-1-4169-9961-4 Lulu Walks the Dogs, illus. Lane Smith (2012), Atheneum, ISBN 978-1-4424-3579-7 Lulu's Mysterious Mission, illus. Kevin Cornell (2014), Atheneum, ISBN 978-1-4424-9746-7 Lulu Is Getting a Sister, illus. Kevin Cornell (2018), Atheneum, ISBN 9781481471909

For adults People and Other Aggravations (1971) Yes, Married: A Saga of Love and Complaint (1972) A Visit from St. Nicholas to a Liberated Household illustrated by Norman Green (1977) Love and Guilt and the Meaning of Life, Etc. illustrated by John Alcorn (1979) Necessary Losses: The Loves, Illusions, Dependencies, and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow (1987) Murdering Mr. Monti: A Merry Little Tale of Sex and Violence (1994) Imperfect Control: Our Lifelong Struggles With Power and Surrender (1998) You're Officially a Grown-up: The Graduate's Guide to Freedom, Responsibility, Happiness, and Personal Hygiene (1999) Grown-Up Marriage: What We Know, Wish We Had Known, and Still Need to Know About Being Married (2003)

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Judith Viorst

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Judith Viorst claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Judith Viorst before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Judith Viorst ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Judith Viorst

In research: Judith Viorst appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Judith Viorst in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Judith Viorst is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1931 births, 20th-century American non-fiction writers, 20th-century American women non-fiction writers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Judith Viorst outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Judith Viorst in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Judith Viorst means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Judith Viorst out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Judith Viorst in simple terms?

Why does Judith Viorst matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Judith Viorst?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Judith Viorst.