New Delhi, Nov 29 (IANS): A compilation of 42 stories penned by young authors has been launched in the form of a full-fledged book by Pearson India.

Titled "MyPedia Reader Storybook," it is the result of MyPedia Reader Creative-writing Contest 2017, a contest organised by Pearson India, the stories of whose winners are published in the book.

Pearson said that it received more than 1,500 stories from students across the country. The youngest author whose story got published is 8-years-old and is a student of class four. The stories were judged by a three-panel jury comprising of award-winning children's authors in English -- Santhini Govindan, Arundhati Venkatesh and Indira Ananthakrishnan.

Ujjwal Singh, Vice President - Products and Innovation, Pearson India, along with author Vineet Aggarwal unveiled the book. He spoke about the importance of nurturing children's imagination and innate creativity and encourage them to think critically.

"Imagination and creativity is a crucial educational objective to adequately equip the next generation for their future. Children are powerhouse of talent. Each one of them have different skill and if nurtured properly, they can certainly grow up to do wonders in their respective fields. We, at Pearson, love stories, and have designed MyPedia Reader which is an endeavour to share these stories with the world. While each story we received was beautifully crafted, but the ones that made it to the book brings a fresh new perspective," Singh said.

The stories in MyPedia Reader come from different geographies and different cultures, thus creating a robust reading list that is rich, eclectic, diverse and cross-cultural. These stories stem out of children's own experiences, their issues and aspirations.