P Is for Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever

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This book is really hilarious! My friend and I laughed like school children. I had to look up a few of the words for pronunciation, which was fun. Also, I really like the illustrations.” Let's get real—the English language is bizarre. A might be for apple, but it's also for aisle and aeons. Why does the word "gnat" start with a G but the word "knot" doesn't start with an N? It doesn't always make sense, but don't let these rule-breaking silent letters defeat you! This book is hilarious!! What a great way to make kids feel good about learning! It shows you that language is hard and encourages you to laugh about the hard stuff and not feel bad that it’s hard. Teaching kids with humor – who’d a thunk it works?! Buy one for every child and adult on your list. You will officially be the coolest gift giver ever.”

At first glance, this looks like a book for pre-schoolers, so I’m not sure how my nearly nine-year old niece will react when she unwraps it. I’m confident she’ll find it funny - but there’s also a book token/voucher inside. UPDATE: She was initially wary, then intrigued, but her 11.5-year old sister and their father were more taken by it.

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Are you a logophile (someone who loves words)? If you are, this delightful picture book will be your new favorite alphabet book... In this book, ‘A is for Aisle’ and ‘H is for Heir.’ What? Below each letter and illustration is a sentence describing each word. "M is for Mnemonic. // But now Mr. M. can’t remember why." Isn’t this a delight for readers and writers of all ages? It’s my new favorite." — Imagination Soup P Is for Pterodactyl The Worst Alphabet Book Ever ; All the Letters That Misbehave and Make Words Nearly Impossible to Pronounce

Kirch, Claire (January 15, 2019). "Sourcebooks Launches Three Children's Imprints". Publishers Weekly . Retrieved March 11, 2019. As a teacher for many years and of many second language learners, I enjoyed this alphabet book that humorously points out some of the inconsistencies or unusual pronunciations in the English language. A few of the choices were a bit odd, and I do wish they had included a bit more information (either in the glossary or in supplemental note). For example, notes about which languages some of the words came from (or even a mention that many of them do come originally from other languages) would have been beneficial. Yet I appreciated the humor of the book. The authors of All My Friends Are Dead have teamed up again. This time they chose to offer an entire book filled with terrible advice. Monson and John use dark humor to create a series of amusing rhyming couplets that offer questionable life advice, though maybe the kids should sit this one out. Now generally and from a presented text proper point of view, I have truly found Raj Haldar and Chris Carpenter's P is for Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever both fun and lyrically, humorously engaging, with many included onomatopoeia, tongue twisters and other word-based joys and rhetorical delights (although indeed this is claimed with the necessary caveat that P is for Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever is most definitely and in my humble opinion much too advanced and too potentially, too easily confusing for young children first learning their letters and words and therefore more a book conceptualised for older children, and actually for anyone interested in the many and diverse vagrancies and conundrums of English language spelling and pronunciation).Ewe, eulogy, pterodactyl, psychic, you, and why were some great examples, and I liked that they covered the Greek root for pterodactyl in the glossary. Lakritz, Talia (November 23, 2018). "A children's book called 'P is for Pterodactyl' features the most bizarre words in the English language". Insider . Retrieved March 11, 2019. Citations counts from the Google Scholar™ indexing service can be viewed at the linked Google Scholar™ search. upvotes Follow Unfollow 4 years ago Dots Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017 The book spotlights words that have silent letters, or weird grammar rules, and invites you to ponder dangerous word traps and oddities. And you might learn something new along the way...While other lessons teach really important principles that, honestly, could change your life and maybe even help you find love." — Funny or Die

P Is for Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever - by Chris Carpenter and Maria Beddia was almost purpose built for me. Long before George Carlin asked about how the “w” in one got tangled into the otherwise “w” less two, or for that matter why it takes so many times to get to, too, two right? I was not getting the hang of spelling. “I: be fore "e" except after "c" is arbitrary enough if you are going to pretend away words like Chief, Believe and Field and there are others. I also have a clear memory of in class spelling bee when a friend of mine nailed Pneumonia while I was fortunately cautious enough to not call Bull, even as I was thinking it. (David got it right by realizing teacher was reading from a dictionary and was still in the letter “P” ) Beryl Exley is an experienced classroom teacher and lecturer in English Curriculum and Literacies Education with the school of Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University in Queensland. She is the immediate past National President of the ALEA National Council (2017–2019) and is a very proud ALEA Life Member. Beryl co-edited Literacies in Early Childhood: Foundations for Equity and Quality with Annette Woods in 2020 (published by OUP). I’ve long thought that the poor correlation of the sound of English words to their spelling needed to be highlighted. This humorous book does a great job of lampooning word-initial sounds versus word-initial letters. It should be a required textbook for all ESL classes!” Of course, some of these words are used in the English language but taken from others, which makes the pronunciation quirks more understandable. Gnocchi is an Italian word for a specific type of pasta, while czar is a Russian word for emperor. Overall, the book is a fun way to get kids excited about languagein general and pique their curiosity about why we pronounce words in particular ways. Neither of us are children’s book authors by trade — Chris is a computer programmer, and I’m a rapper otherwise known as Lushlife,” he said. “When we started down the road to bring this book to life, I don’t think we realized just how long the process would take. From start to finish, the project took almost three years to complete. Even though the book consists of just a couple hundred words, we went through scores of revisions. On top of that, we hardly knew anyone in the publishing world, so it took over a year just to find the right folks to help us get a publisher on board. Once we were able to cross that hurdle, our amazing illustrator, Maria Beddia spent a year in her studio working on the funny drawings. I can’t think of anyone else who could’ve so beautifully interpreted our crazy requests, like having ‘a french leopard and a tiny witch sitting in a creepy Victorian home playing the Ouija board.'”Most children will agree the book is “smafunderful (smart + fun + wonderful).” (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 7-10) The Book of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks is the creative genius of author Bethany Keeley. Keeley originally started her journey down the long and winding road of grammatical rules and punctuation with her labor of love, The “Blog” Of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. To her surprise, people are always finding hysterically incorrect ways to use quotation marks, and her gift to all of us is a compendium of the little gems she had collected along the way. This may be the perfect gift for that person who’s always correcting someone else’s grammar. Let's get real-the English language is bizarre. A might be for apple, but it's also for aisle and aeons. Why does the word "gnat" start with a G but the word "knot" doesn't start with an N? It doesn't always make sense, but don't let these rule-breaking silent letters defeat you!

P is for Pterodactylis an unusual alphabet book that features some of the English language's quirkiest words. In this entertaining chapter book, the first in a series, readers meet kind Sir Sidney and the gentle performers and hands in his circus. But Sir Sidney is tired and leaves the circus under the management of new-hire Barnabas Brambles for a week.

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a b Russo, Maria (October 19, 2018). "Standout New Picture Books". The New York Times . Retrieved March 11, 2019. If you’re a dinosaur, all your friends are dead. Cute and dark at once, All My Friends Are Dead is a hilarious book that shows the down side of being anything from a snowman to a tree. It’s the saddest funny book you’ll ever read. 2. No Reading Allowed: The Worst Read Aloud Book Ever This book is really for those who are good enough readers to relish the illogicalities of English spellings, rather than be oblivious to or frustrated by them. In 2020, the sequel, No Reading Allowed: The Worst Read-Aloud Book Ever, was released by Sourcebooks Explore. I love alphabet books, I also love pointing out inconsistencies of language (there’s an ‘l’ in half, so weird).