字母书都是为了帮助刚开始学习字母的孩子强化记忆，可是《纽约时报》畅销书排行榜上偏偏有这样一本怪异的字母绘本，里面所有字母代表的单词首字母都不发音？请关注本期Quriosity。
The self-declared “worst alphabet book ever” has become a surprise hit over the last fortnight, with hundreds of thousands of parents rushing to get their hands on P is for Pterodactyl: a picture book that explains to children that while A might be for apple, it’s also for aisle.
过去两周，成千上万的家长争相抢购《P代表翼手龙》（P is for Pterodactyl）：这本绘本向孩子们解释了字母A可能代表苹果(Apple)，也可能代表过道(Aisle)。这本书自称“史上最差的字母书”，却意外地大受欢迎。
注：Pterodactyl中的P不发音，Aisle中的A也不发音
Dreamed up by Raj Haldar, also known as the rapper Lushlife, with computer programmer Chris Carpenter, P is for Pterodactyl was published by US independent Sourcebooks on 13 November.
《P代表翼手龙》是说唱歌手Raj Haldar和计算机程序员Chris Carpenter一起构思创作的，在11月13日由美国独立的“资料库”出版社（Sourcebooks）出版。
The first print run of 10,000 copies sold out almost immediately, with the publisher now reporting more than 100,000 unfulfilled orders as they wait for a reprint of another 210,000 copies .
该书第一批印刷了1万册，几乎一上市就售罄了。出版社现在表示：还有10万多份订单没有完成，他们在等待即将再次印刷的21万册。
Demand has also spiked in the UK; sales representative Rob Richardson said that social media buzz after a Facebook post from Imagination Soup saw sales spike from five to 3,000 orders overnight, with an additional and “pretty unprecedented” 10,000 advance orders the next day.
英国的需求也大幅上升；销售代表Rob Richardson表示：因为一位叫“Imagination Soup”的用户在Facebook上发布的一篇帖子，《P代表翼手龙》的销售额一夜之间从5笔飙升到3000笔，次日又额外增加一笔预定了1万册的订单，这是“史无前例的”。
“The first day we sold out of the entire first run; it’s been quite surreal from there,” said Haldar, whose book is now sitting at No 8 on the New York Times bestseller list. “It’s been totally unexpected.”
“我们第一批印刷的书在上市第一天就卖光了，这是非常不可思议的。”Haldar说。他的书现在在《纽约时报》畅销书排行榜上排名第八。“这完全出乎我的意料。”
He and Carpenter came up with the idea after having lunch with a friend whose child had brought some alphabet flash cards with him. “Each one was of a food, so we were looking through them and reading them to our friends’ kid Isaac.
Haldar和Carpenter是在和朋友共进午餐时想到这个创意的，朋友的孩子Isaac带来了一些字母卡片。“每个字母都代表着一种食物，所以我们看了看，还读给Isaac听。
We got to Q, and Q was for quinoa,” said Haldar. “We were laughing about how it phonetically sounds weird – plus, I didn’t have quinoa until I was, like, 25.
比如我们看到Q代表藜麦（Quinoa）。”Haldar描述道。“我们嘲笑这个词的发音太怪异了，而且我大概25岁的时候才第一次吃到藜麦。
We were joking about that and started talking about how it would be even sillier if an entire alphabet hinged on silent letters.”
我们拿这一点开玩笑，并开始讨论如果所有字母代表的单词都是由不发音的字母开头，那就更愚蠢了。”
For a while, they just populated a Google document with words as they thought them up, but “what started to come to light was that the words in this document were implying a really rich universe that would make an awesome kids’ book – gnomes and knights and tsars”.
开始的时候，他们只是把偶尔想到的首字母不发音的单词写进谷歌文档里，但“他们逐渐发现这个文档中的单词隐含着非常多的内容，比如“侏儒（Gnome）”“骑士（Knight）”“沙皇（Tsar）”等，它们完全可以组成一本令人惊叹的儿童读物。”
Illustrator Maria·Tina·Beddia came on board, and they found a publisher in Sourcebooks, where editorial director Kelly Barrales-Saylor called the concept a “completely fresh take” on a standard alphabet book.
后来插画家Maria Tina Beddia加入了这个团队，他们在Sourcebooks找到了一家出版社，其编辑部主任Kelly Barrales-Saylor认为这个想法是对标准字母表图书的“颠覆性诠释”。
“Word nerds, like me, love to argue about the complexities of the English language. Silent letters and absurd homophones can be incredibly maddening for all of us, but especially for kids just learning their ABCs or how to read,” she said.
“像我一样痴迷钻研词汇的人，喜欢讨论英语语言的复杂性。不发音的字母和荒谬的同音异义词足以使我们抓狂，对于那些刚刚开始学习字母和读法的孩子们来说更是如此。”
Haldar admitted that he and Carpenter had struggled with some letters. “There are plenty of silent-first-letter words, but there are letters where there are very few examples and we had to come up with creative ways to think within the rubric of what we were trying to do,” he said.
Haldar承认，他和Carpenter曾因为一些字母产生争执。他解释说：“英语中有很多首字母不发音的词，但有些字母开头的例子很少，我们需要创造性地思考，但同时又要与我们想做的内容相符。
“For the letter B there is only one word in the English language starting with a silent B. Folks can get the book to figure that out.”
比如字母B：英语中只有一个单词以不发音的B开头。人们可以从这本书中找到答案。”
Haldar, whose own favourite was “T is for Tsunami”, said he was was glad the book had not underestimated children’s interest.
Haldar个人最喜欢的是“T代表海啸（Tsunami）”，他说自己很高兴这本书没有低估孩子们的兴趣。
“Kids really do love big unwieldy words – when we point at the cover of the book, even the three or four-year-old just learning to read will be, like: ‘Pterodactyl!’,” he said. “It brings out the word nerd in everybody.”
“他们真的很喜欢看起来又大又笨拙的单词——当我们指着书的封面时，即使是三四岁刚学会阅读的孩子也会喊出 ‘Pterodactyl!（翼手龙）’。”Haldar说：“这本书唤醒了每个人心中那个痴迷文字的书呆子。”
END
文章来源|The Guardian
图片来源|网络
编译|张文钰
排版|张文钰
指导老师|刘佳
