A children’s book bag with a pattern that uses animals to represent each letter of the alphabet has left adults stumped as they try to identify the creatures correctly.
Posting to the subreddit CasualUK, a baffled dad shared a snap of the bag, which has an entire A-Z alphabet featuring animals on the front, and asked his fellow Redditors for help.
The dad wrote: ‘So we bought this busy book for our one-year-old full of zips, buttons clips sort of thing. But going through the alphabet on the front a couple of letters have me stumped! What is I, V, X, Y?’
Help arrived in the form of confusion, further questions and ambiguous guesses, as the grown-ups scrambled to conclude what the characters are meant to represent.
The dad began the conversation by commenting underneath the photo, ‘N will drive you crazy if you think about it too long.’
Some Reddit users expressed sheer confusion at the cryptic characters, with some coming up with nonsensical answers to poke fun at the oddity and difficulty behind the children’s design.
One user answered the original poster by saying: ‘I thought it [“N”] looked like one of those moles with the funny star shaped noses. But then couldn’t think how mole was an N.’
Another said: ‘What the heck is A, F, J, N, O, Q or X????? Y is Yak and I think V is Vampire Bat. I is Inch Worm. Is F supposed to be a fox? Because that doesn’t look like a fox.’
Another perplexed user said: ‘What I thought was a unicorn is missing the critical horn. Is it not unicorn?’
A commenter jokingly stated, X and Y seem to be Pokémon,’ while another quipped, ‘I’m pretty sure W is for “What the f*** kind of worm is that”.’
One more user pondered, ‘The thing in the X looks a bit like a cow’s nose. It’s not an ox is it?’
The dad behind the original post wrote: ‘Could be but that’s a poor show since X and Y would be the same thing. Do you think the designer just gave up towards the end?’
The father continued to make guesses throughout the conversation thread, even going as far as to think of obscure, lesser-known animals that may have not even been taught to primary school children just yet.
He said: ‘I was thinking a Nutria, a web-footed rodent that are more agile in the water than on land. This will be fun explaining to her [his daughter] when she’s older and asking.’
One Reddit user, however, appeared to eventually save the day – and fellow Redditors’ sanity – by providing an accurate list of answers for each of the letters, with many thanking him for his conclusive contribution.
The commenter revealed that N may be “nest,” U is “unicorn,” V is “vampire bat,” W is “worm,” X is “Xenarthra” and Y is “Yak”.’
Xenarthra is an obscure choice because it’s a group of mammals, including Anteaters, armadillos, and sloths, rather than just one creature.
The user went on to explain the baffling design behind the letter N, saying: ‘N is the craziest one for me. The person who snagged this pattern misprinted it.
The shape in the bottom right is supposed to be an egg in the centre (that’s the oval bit) and there is supposed to be sticks around it (that’s the other bit with the light lines coming out). The eye on N is supposed to be a bird.’
The original poster responded to the solution with sincere gratitude and relief, saying: ‘You sir are a hero.’