There are fewer than 10,000 red pandas in the wild in India, but a new imprint from Amazon’s Indian publishing house Westland aims to raise the profile of the endangered species with an imprint called… Red Panda.

Launched to mark Childen’s Day, the imprint is,

expected to publish a range of books for children of different ages, in many genres, including fiction, non-fiction, picture books, activity books and young adult fiction.

Red Panda imprint publisher Vidhi Bhargava explained,

Our books will carry little snippets and factoids about endangered Indian species in an attempt to spread awareness and combine storytelling with information—a key tenet of our publishing for children.

The imprint will launch with a book by Ruskin Bond, one of India’s most revered children’s authors, illustrated by Maya Ramaswamy.

The report adds,

Also on their way to press are innovative picture books on India, picture biographies that introduce children to contemporary icons of science and sport, and translations from Indian languages, including a delightful cameo by Perumal Murugan’s beloved black goat, Poonachi.

The YA list is anchored by A Flight of the Arconaut, a bold, exhilarating steampunk adventure by Sophia Khan, and Gravepyres School for the Recently Deceased, Anita Roy’s vividly imagined and emotionally complex journey into a Land beyond the Living.

Via the Times of India.

But Ruskin Bond is also working with Penguin Random House India to voice-over his own books for audio.

PRH India announced,

To begin with, 85-year-old Bond is recording eight chapter books, based on different themes — adventure, thriller, animals, nature, travel — and will include stories “Cherry Tree”, “Getting Granny’s Glasses” and “White Mice”.

The books will be released in early 2020 and will be available across all leading audio book platforms.

Ruskin Bond said,

Thanks for Puffin and Penguin audio books I can realize my ambition of reading aloud my own stories, and that too, to an audience of thousands of young and old readers – now listeners – lovers of good storytelling.

Not every author has the chance to read aloud his own stories to an appropriate audience. I had fun doing the readings, and I hope you’ll enjoy them too. Happy listening!

Sohini Mitra, associate publisher at Penguin Random House India, added,

It was a dream to immortalize Ruskin’s work beyond the written word, and I am thrilled that he agreed. This is a first and one of its kind collaboration for us and an absolute honour. His exceptional writing style has inducted many of us to reading and it continues to play an important role in growing up with books. We have published innumerable books by Ruskin Bond and it is a matter of great privilege that we will now be able to make his craft available in different formats.

Via The Hindu.