New Delhi, Oct 09: Harry Potter can take a break. Ruskin Bond's 'Rusty' - the quiet, imaginative and sensitive boy from the hills - is back. The popular writer from Mussoorie has come out with two new books in the rusty series -- 'Rusty runs away' and 'Rusty and the leopard', that trace the boy's development from an imaginative seven-year-old to a young man in his early twenties.

For the first time, the Rusty stories have been put in a sequel so that they provide a complete chronicle of the boy's life.

"I hope the children and young adults will enjoy the books," says the author, who was awarded the Padma Shree in 1999 and is also a Sahitya Akademi award winner.

Having randomly written stories about Rusty's adventures, bond about a year back set down to create a chronological body of work about the boy from the hills, the first in the series being 'Rusty, the boy from the hills,' which dealt with his early years in Dehradun.


'Rusty runs away' is about the five years of the boy's life during which his world turns topsy-turvy as change after change besieges him.
What kind of trauma he faces and how he overcomes the bad experiences in a boarding school where he is forcibly sent away following the death of his father and grandmother is what the book deals with.

The restlessness compels him to run away from the school with an ambition to cross the seas and travel the world.
Bureau Report