Susan Taghdis has been a founder of the Iranian Association of Writers for Children and young adults. She is mostly known as the writer for preschoolers and children. Her stories develop with extreme brevity and sentences are short and simple. She wrote many books and some of them are translated into other languages. Some of them are: A gift for you(1993),Whose nose made that noise(2013),A long way(2010),My beautiful horse(2007).Best Book Award from Parvin Literary Prize, Best Book Award from Ghanipour Festival and Islamic Republic of Iran’s Book of the Year Award are some of her awards.
Title : Gili Gili Series (8 Vols.)
Author: Susan Taghdis
Illustrator: Meysam Musavi
Subject: Fiction (Story)
Publisher: Madresse Pubs.
Year of Publishing: 2017/1st edition
No. of Pages: 20 (each Vol.)
Size: 19×19
Age of Group: 6+
Title: Gili Gili Is Feeling Hot
ISBN: 9789640810873
The weather was very hot. Gili Gili (the little elephant) went to the crocodile’s pond to swim. The bigger elephants told him that the crocodile would not allow that and would eat him up. But Gili Gili went and asked the crocodile for permission and the crocodile permitted him to swim in his pond on the condition that he would not make the water of the pond muddy and would not damage its wall. However, by jumping up and down in the pond, Gili Gili both made the water muddy and damaged its wall…
The message of the book to children is that when they make a promise to someone, they should keep their promise or else they would face problems. The book contains simple text and beautiful illustrations.
Book Extract: The weather was very hot. The water in the ponds had dried up. Gili Gili was fanning himself up with the help of his ears. He wished he could take a dip in the water. He suddenly remembered the crocodile’s pond.
The crocodile had made a pond for himself, but would not let the elephants go into it.
The bigger elephants used to say: “We must not go to the crocodile’s pond, because he may get angry and eat us up.”
Title : Gilly Gilly and the Bird
ISBN: 9789640810859
Gilly Gilly is a plump and chubby elephant. One day, it met a small bird on a hill. It talked well of Gilly Gilly’s big limbs, long trunk, and flat ears. The bird accepted his words and then flew away with its small wings. Gilly Gilly said itself: “If such a small bird can fly, why can’t I with such big body?” It jumped up but it fell down and injured its trunk and ears. This illustrated book is one volume of Gilly Gilly books collection enjoying the short text, attractive stories, and beautiful illustrations. The author aims to teach moral and behavioral concepts to children.
Title : What was Gilly Gilly Afraid of?
ISBN: 9789640810828
One day, Gilly Gilly encountered an angry rhinoceros. It attacked Gilly Gilly and hit it with its horn so strongly that Gilly Gilly fell down in a pit and its trunk became distorted. Gilly Gilly began to walk that its trunk hit a beehive and the bees stung it so badly that it had to be hospitalized. The message of this book to children is that when they are warned doing something is dangerous, they have to listen to that warning and follow that for sure.
Title : Gilly Gilly in Shadow
ISBN: 9789640810880
On a hot day, Gilly Gilly was looking for a shadow of a tree. It found a shadowy vine which had a lot of grapes. After eating some grapes, Gilly Gilly liked them and ate all grapes of the tree and while his stomach, mouth, and trunk were full of grapes, it lost its balance, fell down and the grapes which were in its nose scattered all around it.The message of this book to children is that they try not to exceed what they like or overeat what pleases them.
Title : Gilly Feels Sleepy
ISBN: 9789640810835
Gilly Gilly was sleeping under a tree. Other jungle animals asked it to play with them but Gilly Gilly refused as it thought if it played with them, it would be tired. Other animals played with each other without Gilly Gilly so they got tired and at night they slept soon and without any problem but Gilly Gilly could not sleep that night until dawn.The message of this book to children is that if they rest all day long and be lazy, they do not feel relaxed at nights.
Title : Where Is My Sea?
Author: Susan Taghdis
Illustrator: Mahmud Mokhtari
ISBN: 9789640815144
The present book consists of three stories entitled “Where Is Here?”, “Sweet Times”, and “Where Is My Sea?” The story “Where Is Here?” is the conversation between two snowflakes and the events that happen to them when they fell to the ground.
In the story “Sweet Times” the mother mouse intends to make raisins and the baby mouse is impatient to eat the prepared raisins. In the story of “Where Is My Sea”, Koubad takes away a baby sea swallow from the turbulent sea and takes it to the city. Finding the swallow badly missing the sea where it lived, a crow takes it to a pond in the backyard of a house.
Title : The Big Big Bull
Author: Susan Taghdis
Illustrator: Maryam Tabatabaee
ISBN: 9789640812563
The big bull liked to eat to that degree to become bigger than all other cows, bulls and other animals to make them follow his orders. So, it ate so much honey and trees leave that it became so big that horrified other animals to that limit they did not dare to approach him. He was left all alone and was sad as nobody accepted to be his friend. Now, he was looking for a way to solve this problem. Mr. Bear suggested him to be kind to others.
This book includes a short text, beautiful illustrations and attractive story that tries to teach children the way they can be others’ friends.