True fact: I am almost exactly the same age as Alexander Viorst, and grew up a handful of blocks from his house.
Never met him, though -- different schools, different circles. My parents did once meet his mother, author Judith Viorst, at a cocktail party. I read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day as a kid, but didn't imprint on it the way I did The Monster at the End of This Book or Richard Scarry's Great Big Air Book -- and I certainly didn't know that he and his older brothers were real.
I love love LOVE reading that book aloud to littles, though. The cadences are just about perfect and the author never tries to redeem or minimize Alexander's experience. Some days are just bad, even in Australia. The sequels (which I didn't learn existed till I was a grownup) are okay, but none are as good as Very Bad Day.