Raj Haldar

Raj Haldar, better known by his stage name Lushlife, is an American rapper, composer, and producer. He also co-wrote a children’s book, P Is for Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever, with Chris Carpenter. Carpenter is a software developer for a tech startup in New York. In No Reading Allowed: The Worst Read-Aloud Book Ever (Sourcebooks Explore) Haldar and Carpenter team up for another fresh look at the English language. After all, in English you can’t believe everything you hear. A single word can have many different meanings. And sometimes two words that sound alike can be spelled completely differently. Is it “Man, a tea sounds great” or “Manatee sounds great”? With illustrations by Bryce Gladfelter, Ptolemy the pterodactyl is back to show us all how absurd and fun language can be when homophones, homonyms, and tricky punctuation are at play. No Reading Allowed allows children and their parents to laugh together while also learning something new. Kirkus Reviews praised it as “Endlessly funny… Preposterous situations and farcical sound-alike sentences will elicit groans and giggles.”