‘Nino’s Secret Garden’ written by Kevi Z Kevichusa launched

A book titled ‘Nino’s Secret Garden’ written by Kevi Z Kevichusa (left) was launched by Sashi Imchen, Academic Director of The Maple Tree School at Kingdom Culture Church, Dimapur on June 15.

Morung Express News
Dimapur | June 15

A book titled ‘Nino’s Secret Garden’ written by Kevi Z Kevichusa was launched at Kingdom Culture Church, Dimapur on Tuesday evening in a small gathering with few family and friends. It was launched by Sashi Imchen, Academic Director of The Maple Tree School while review of the book was given by Bano Haralu.

This book is probably the first of its kind by a Naga author in the genre of an illustrated scripture inspired children’s story book.

The book has been written by Kevi Z Kevichusa, a Naga author and mother of two. 

In an exclusive interview with The Morung Express, Kevi shares that the book is about a little girl who discovers a door that leads into a garden where she makes friends with a lion.

Kevi who along with her husband, Visasier Kevichusa pastors a 'non-denominational church' in Dimapur says that to be a children’s book author/illustrator was “not really” what she wanted. 

“Not really. I used to work as a copy writer in a different life many years ago and when I was much younger, I wanted to pursue art as a career which never happened. So this book is an attempt at marrying art and writing to see what would emerge,” she puts across. 

Kevi has two children –daughter Zara and son Judah, “who, for now is with Jesus.”

Sharing about the passion for writing this book, Kevi says, “I love children’s books. Both my kids are big readers because we made it a habit early on to get them excited about books. I wrote ‘Nino’s Secret Garden' as a tribute to my two little readers and to inspire other kids to love books as much as mine do.”

On finding the inspiration for the story and the characters of ‘Nino's Secret Garden’, she reflects, “Ten years ago, I had a mystical experience similar to the one that Nino has and that started me on this road to share my experience in a book that both children and adults can read and take something away from.”

Kevi started working on this book more than five years ago when she was pregnant with her son Judah. “I started with drawing Nino and the lion and then wrote the story around these two friends.”

“The book was ready three years ago and it nearly got published by a different publishing house back then but my son was diagnosed with cancer and I just did not have the time to finalise it. So it was shelved for a long time,” discloses Kevi adding, “I don’t know if that qualifies as a challenge, because I feel this is the right time for this book.”

Through ‘Nino's Secret Garden’, Kevi hopes “to inspire wonder and curiosity in a world that we can only see and access with our hearts and our minds.” 

Earlier, an update from Bano Haralu informed that ‘Nino’s Secret Garden’ is also the product of enterprises managed by Naga men and women such as the Barkweaver Publications, a publishing house set up by celebrated Naga author Easterine Kire to publish the works of Naga story tellers. 

The design and layout has been done by Little Village, Dimapur and printed by Mumbai based Quarterfold Printing House.

The book will be available at Kingdom Culture Church, Notun Bosti, Dimapur and www.ilandlo.com