P Is for Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever (original 2018; edition 2018)

by Raj Haldar (Author), Chris Carpenter (Author), Maria Beddia (Illustrator)

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734	23	30,808	(4.11)	1
Turning the traditional idea of an alphabet book on its head, P is for Pterodactyl is perfect for anyone who has ever been stumped by silent letters or confused by absurd homophones. This whimsical, unique book takes silent letter entries like "K is for Knight" a step further with "The noble knight's knife nicked the knave's knee." Lively illustrations provide context clues, and alliterative words help readers navigate text like "a bright white gnat is gnawing on my gnocchi" with ease. 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."… (more)

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Member:	esther_a
Title:	P Is for Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever
Authors:	Raj Haldar (Author)
Other authors:	Chris Carpenter (Author), Maria Beddia (Illustrator)
Info:	Sourcebooks Explore (2018), 40 pages
Collections:	Your library, Juvenile
Rating:
Tags:	picture book, alphabet

Work Information

P is For Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever by Raj Haldar (Author) (2018)

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Showing 1-5 of 21 (next | show all)

Oooooh, I love this book. It had been sitting on my wishlist for many months, maybe even years, then I finally bought it. The third graders were absolutely amazed by it today, and even the eighth graders seemed to appreciate the farewell pages I copied for them from this lovely alphabet book, the worst one ever. Is there a better way to teach silent letters (or anything else for that matter) than through fun and games? I am definitely going to use it with other groups as well. (

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blueisthenewpink | Jan 3, 2024 |

My baby is 10 weeks old, so we'll revisit this when she learns to talk but I figure it doesn't hurt to read out loud everything and there's big pictures for her to look at.

Really fun exploration of word exceptions, with a glossary in the back for those tricky things! I also thought it interesting they mention that a British accent will drop the r in words like "hard", but then "herbalism" was on the H page and I'm fairly certain some dialects will still pronounce it in that word. (

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Daumari | Dec 28, 2023 |

This is funny, bizarre and a cute little book for kids. I learnt a lot about the weirdo world of English spelling and it’s quirkiness from this short book ☺️ (

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Santhosh_Guru | Oct 19, 2023 |

A clever book that mocks other alphabet books for children by using silent letters, homophones, and alternate letter sounds. It's a little awkward in writing and art, and not all letters work as well as others with a lot of words imported from other languages carrying a little too much of the load, but the concept is so winning it's easy to set all that aside.

Bottom line: The English language sucks! But we love it! (

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villemezbrown | May 1, 2023 |

This book could be used for primary and intermediate. this book goes through alphabetical examples of words that don't follow the common letter rules. I would use this book to teach about words that don't follow the rules, and I would also just like to have this book in my classroom book rotation and use it for read aloud. (

)

LizzieC21 | Apr 22, 2023 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Haldar, Raj	Author	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Beddia, Maria Tina	Illustrator	main author	all editions	confirmed
Carpenter, Chris	Author	main author	all editions	confirmed

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Notable Lists

The Best Children's Books of the Year (2019)

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Canonical title

P is For Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever

Original title

Alternative titles

P is For Pterodactyl* *The Worst Alphabet Book Ever** **All the letters that misbehave and make words nearly impossible to pronounce.

Original publication date

2018

People/Characters

Important places

Important events

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Epigraph

Dedication

First words

Did you know that there are some really wacky words that start with a silent letter?

A is for Aisle.

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

English

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

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▾Book descriptions

Turning the traditional idea of an alphabet book on its head, P is for Pterodactyl is perfect for anyone who has ever been stumped by silent letters or confused by absurd homophones. This whimsical, unique book takes silent letter entries like "K is for Knight" a step further with "The noble knight's knife nicked the knave's knee." Lively illustrations provide context clues, and alliterative words help readers navigate text like "a bright white gnat is gnawing on my gnocchi" with ease. 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."

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