School’s Out!

by Ruskin Bond

I’m thinking,’ said Romi, ‘that even if the fire is out in a day or two, it will be a long time before the bridge is repaired. So it will be a nice long holiday from school!’
‘But you can walk across the river,’ said Teju. ‘You just did it.’
‘Impossible,’ said Romi. ‘It’s much too swift.’
There is a sense of anticipation in the air, increasing as the clock slowly ticks on, each second seeming to last forever. The teacher’s voice drones on in the background as you exchange another grin with your best friends, already planning your summer routine in detail in your head. And then the bell rings—that sweet sound of freedom—signalling that school is finally out!
Revelling in the joy of this moment, School’s Out! brings together a collection of Ruskin Bond’s best children’s stories, the perfect summer vacation read. Journey through streets and tunnels and forests, on tongas and trains and bicycles, with friends old and new, and make the most of the holidays through the delightful style of the writer on the hill.

320 pages, Paperback

Published June 5, 2025

About the author

Ruskin Bond is an Indian author of British descent. He is considered to be an icon among Indian writers and children's authors and a top novelist. He wrote his first novel, The Room on the Roof, when he was seventeen which won John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. Since then he has written several novellas, over 500 short stories, as well as various essays and poems, all of which have established him as one of the best-loved and most admired chroniclers of contemporary India. In 1992 he received the Sahitya Akademi award for English writing, for his short stories collection, "Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra", by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters in India. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 for contributions to children's literature. He now lives with his adopted family in Landour near Mussoorie.