Children’s writer Susan Taqdis, author of “The Eleventh Step”, dies at 61

TEHRAN – (Iranart)- Some Persian new agencies announced that children’s author Susan Taqdis, the writer of the acclaimed story “The Eleventh Step”, died of heart disease at her home in Tehran on Friday. She was 61.

Born in Shiraz, she commenced her career in writing in Kayhan Bacheha, Iran’s first children’s magazine, by writing the story “My Daddy Was a Thief”.    

Taqdis’s works were honored at several national literary events. Her story “Did You See a Yellow Nose?” was honored in 2007 at the Parvin Etesami Literary Awards, which are awarded for works by female literati with outstanding achievements in Persian literature.

In 2008, she was honored at Iran’s Book of the Year Awards for her “The Eleventh Step” about a lion cub that never dared to take one more step toward its freedom when the zookeeper forgot to lock its cage’s door. 

Her other credits include “Do You See the Crimson Too?”, “My Giraffe Is Blue”, “Once Upon a Time”, “Behind the Blue Wall”, “The Life Story of Prophet Noah (AS)”, “The Green Kids” and “The Little Girl and Her Angel”.

“Mrs. Susan Taqdis considered books as the first bricks in the structure of children’s mindsets, therefore she tried to lay them properly,” Deputy Culture Minister for Cultural Affairs Mohsen Javadi said in a letter of condolences published on Saturday.

“She wrote for children in magazines and books for years to fill their unblemished minds with words giving an appropriate image of life,” he added.   

source: Tehran Times