Story Time with Soha Ali Khan: Get ready for Juggernaut Book's celebrity audio show for kids

Juggernaut Books has partnered with Hubhopper to create India's first celebrity audio show for kids, where Soha Ali Khan will read eight handpicked stories written by Indian authors.

The idea is to encourage the habit of reading in kids and what better way to do it than putting the tablet and smartphone aside and making them listen to stories just like children once used to - as many readers will remember their grandmothers reading to them!

Every Friday starting from Feb 28, a new story will be released, read by Soha. The collaboration includes six other publishers, among the country’s best, to curate a handpicked selection of their best stories along with Soha.

The stories have been statedly deliberately chosen to be short so they retain the child’s attention, and are action-packed as well, to make things fun and entertaining. 

The podcast's platform partner is Hubhopper: India's leading podcast platform with over 1 million hours of content in 15 languages. Also, the podcast will feature stories from Juggernaut Books, Harpercollins, Scholastic, Hachette, Rupa Publications, Pratham Books and Karadi Tales.

Testimonials for the initiative:

"As a mom myself, this podcast is quite exciting for me! New parents have a lot of struggles, and keeping their kids entertained and busy is a big one. I hope that this podcast will take some of the load off of young parents, and bring some fun and joy into the lives of the kids who will tune in. This podcast brings back the magic of storytelling! I had a lot of fun reading these stories, and hope that our listeners will have just as much fun listening to them." - Soha Ali Khan

'At Juggernaut, we are always thinking of how to get people reading - its at the core of our work. Our ambition with this show is to get kids into great storytelling - especially those whose parents may not be able to read with them. We’re delighted that Hubhopper is partnering with us and that Soha agreed to be a part of this project.' - Chiki Sarkar, Publisher and Founder, Juggernaut Books

"Print is no longer the only way to reach out to readers. We need to find new and evolving formats to get children hooked to stories and storytelling and the Podcast is an interesting way forward. We are happy to have a story from our bestselling Flipped Anthology series as part of the inaugural podcasts by Soha." - Tina Narang, Publisher, Children’s Books, HarperCollins

"In our times, books are not just page-turners anymore. They talk, interact and express themselves through voiceovers. This podcast offers a great cross-media opportunity to bring our stories to a platform where they can be expressed and felt through an experience." - Nishtha Kapil, Publisher, Rupa Publications

'Thrilled that read alouds are getting the importance they deserve in developing a nation of readers!' - Shantanu Duttagupta, Publisher, Scholastic India

'Stories are powerful. They are essential to building early reading skills in children and podcasts are a powerful medium that can bring them alive with sound and audio.' - Suzanne Singh, Chairperson, Pratham Books

Karadi Tales’ journey began with audiobooks – we love a well-told story! We’re therefore glad to partner with Juggernaut and HubHopper to bring listeners The Rumour by Anushka Ravishankar and Kanyika Kini.' - Shobha Viswanath, Publishing Director, Karadi Tales

‘God knows there are few platforms that give a space and a hearing to children’s stories in India – and who better than Soha Ali Khan, both actor and parent, to tell this sparkly tale!’ - Vatsala Kaul Banerjee, Publisher, Children’s Books, Hachette India