Each page in this cute little volume displays a letter of the alphabet and highlights ways in which the letter does not seem to follow the rules. 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. These databases contain citations from different subsets of available publications and different time periods and thus the citation count from each is usually different. Maria Russo wrote: "You can curse the English language for its insane spelling rules (or lack thereof), or you can delight in it, as this raucous trip through the odd corners of our alphabet does.

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). The book’s initial advice is to “just ignore that pesky first letter and sound out the rest of the word. A few (like the title letter) are really well done, but there's also quite a bit of "cheating" going on and several just didn't work for me at all. The purpose of this book is not to learn letter sounds; however, but for readers to understand that language is complex and sometimes unpredictable.Sensitive children may doubt Sir Sidney’s wisdom in leaving his animals with an unscrupulous man, and the closing message is a tad didactic, but that doesn’t blunt the fun too much. If there’s one way to get your kids’ attention, whether it’s at home or in the classroom, it’s mentioning the word “butt.

In I Need A New Butt, a little boy sets out to solve a pretty big problem — there’s a crack in his butt! and other times it means showing how that letter is not actually used where you might expect it to be. For those, we had to put some significant time and effort into creating clever workarounds that still matched the overall spirit of the funny book for kids. S is for Seas" because "seas" sounds like the letter C, I guess, but what other sound is "s" supposed to make in a book about words "nearly impossible to pronounce"?

And if you run into any trouble, the authors thoughtfully include a dictionary in the back to help you out. Everyone from early learners to grown-up grammarians will love this wacky book where 'A is for Aisle' but 'Y is definitely not for Why. That was the moment that sparked the initial idea to create our own funny book for learning letters with only words like quinoa. 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.

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. 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.

After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there? P Is for Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever is a children's picture book written by Raj Haldar and Chris Carpenter and illustrated by Maria Tina Beddia. Haldar and his friend Chris Carpenter, a software engineer, came up with the idea for the alphabet book.

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. But Sir Sidney is tired and leaves the circus under the management of new-hire Barnabas Brambles for a week.P is for Pterodactyl is a fresh take on the secret lives of silent letters, and it’s super fun to read, no matter how old you are.