Skip to main content

P is for Pterodactyl: The WORST Alphabet Book Ever


P is for Pterodactyl: The WORST Alphabet Book Ever
Written by Raj Haldar and Chris Carpenter
Illustrated by Maria Tina Beddia
Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2018. Picture Book.

Many of the alphabet books I recommend are perfect for younger children in helping them learn the letters and their sounds as they get ready to read. This alphabet book is something quite different. I would recommend this for older children who are reading well, that is when it is the most humorous. Haldar and Carpenter include words with silent letters as the first letter in the word. "Mnemonic" for "M" and "Czar" for "C". In addition to words that sound like the letter, but don't start with that letter. "Eye" does NOT start with "I".

It finishes with "The Worst Glossary Ever!" including a guide for how each word is pronounced--because they can be tricky! It is also interesting for children to pour over the words they didn't recognize and what they mean. Haldar and Carpenter have put together a clever collection of words to create the not very common alphabet book.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) by Pamela Espeland & Elizabeth Verdick

If there's one book today's kids need to read, it is Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) . The authors provide a fun format for teaching etiquette to children. They discuss proper behavior at home, at school, at other people's homes and in public places. The information is completely up-to-date with cellphone manners and netiquette included. Fun, cartoony illustrations are on practically every page giving the book great visual appeal. This book is perfect for boys and girls in the fourth grade or older. WARNING: Bodily functions are discussed.

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin Illustrated by Leslie Evans Charlesburg; 2009; unpaged Faces of the Moon is a short nonfiction book that describes the different phases of the moon and why the moon appears like it does on certain nights. This book is short and sweet so even the youngest of moon lovers will enjoy it. The layout is simplistic and easy to follow. I don’t know much about the moon so I found it very interesting.

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...