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! It includes words that are not obvious subjects for children’s books (“quinoa”), as well as more usual ones (“knight” and “pteranodon ”), and words that are not really words at all (Roman numerals). The RRP is the suggested or Recommended Retail Price of a product, set by the publisher or manufacturer.

With The Worst Alphabet Book Ever we get a comedic twist on the entire shelf of alphabet books. Ain’t nobody here but us words that fail to behave. Phonic teachers, eat your heart out. Sorry, phonetically that’s: eat your hart out. It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. 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. 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.upvotes Follow Unfollow 4 years ago Dots Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017 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 and other times it means showing how that letter is not actually used where you might expect it to be. P Is for Pterodactyl " is a word lover's delight and an almost mandatory read-aloud... Amid all the humor, wordplay, and silliness, there's solid, brain-teasing information about words and how they're spelled. It a delight from start to finish, especially for word lovers and their offspring." -- Common Sense Media

In 2020, the sequel, No Reading Allowed: The Worst Read-Aloud Book Ever, was released by Sourcebooks Explore. Better known by his stage name Lushlife, Raj Haldar is an American rapper, composer, and producer from Philadelphia, PA. 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 DieThough perhaps more playful than practical, the concept will help new readers and new English language learners conquer some of the more peculiar aspects of our language. (Picture book. 7-12) 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

Incredibly clever alphabet book that is perfect for a teacher, that clever early reader, or the friend that is over and done with childhood classics. A book for older kids and language nerds everywhere, focusing mainly on the English language but not exclusively. What sense do these spellings make??!! But as Manybooks wrote, there really were reasons for these spellings, which the authors don't touch on: These databases contain citations from different subsets of available publications and different time periods and thus the citation count from each is usually different. Some works are not in either database and no count is displayed. Scopus includes citations from articles published in 1996 onwards, and Web of Science® generally from 1980 onwards.

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.'” 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.