Editor’s note: At this writing, the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center indicates that the United Kingdom, where Nosy Crow is based, has 125,856 confirmed cases of the coronavirus COVID-19 and 16,550 deaths. And France, where Gallimard Jeunesse is preparing the French edition of Nosy Crow’s new kids’ book, has 156,498 cases and  20,292 deaths. —Porter Anderson

‘The Fastest We’ve Ever Worked on a Book’

Since it was posted to Nosy Crow’s site on April 6, the free 15-page PDF Coronavirus: A Book for Children has been downloaded more than 713,000 times, according to the London-based children’s publisher.Nosy Crow’s co-founding managing director Kate Wilson has written the book with Elizabeth Jenner, a children’s book author and Nosy Crow nonfiction editor, and Nia Roberts, who is the publisher’s head of design. Its illustrations are by Alex Scheffler (Gruffalo, The Gruffalo’s Child, and The Whale and the Snail with author Julia Donaldson).

An audio version has been read by actor Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey, Notting Hill, Paddington, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein), and is available at the App Store’s CloudAloud streaming app for children’s literacy.