These illustrators create children’s books set in the Northeast of India

Canato Jimo and Pankaj Saikia write and illustrate children’s books. They create books set in the Northeast of India that show children navigating everyday issues and situations. For example, like their first wobbly tooth, showing the new kid around school, and playing pranks on each other

Why is this important?

Most children’s books set in the Northeast have largely been retellings of folktales, or mythology, and there’s little that talks about contemporary life. While they both feel that folklore and oral traditions should be remembered, Saikia says context is important.

Jimo admits that while working on his wordless picture book “Snip!”, his first thoughts were centred around folk tales as well. Jimo says that they were a huge part of their upbringing and culture.

Set in Nagaland, Snip! eventually became a book about two siblings making mischief while their parents are out at work.

What drew Jimo and Saikia to picture books?  

For Jimo, it was coming across How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers. Saikia always enjoyed telling stories through comics and illustrations.

Jimo says that he has learned to focus on the story, and not the setting or an underlying political message. Saikia says it took him almost four years of trial-and-error to understand the medium. It was during the Covid-19 lockdown that Saikia began experimenting with localised storytelling, rooted in every day issues.

Saikia feels children need to see their surroundings in what they are reading, and be able to relate to it. Both of them present a version of what childhood could and should be like—out in the open, in the company of friends and nature. Jimo loves to experiment, drawing from both his cultural roots and the work of other illustrators he admires.

Saikia says that the lack of representation of the Northeast in school textbooks is another reason why it becomes even more urgent to feature characters or stories in which children can see themselves.