Linden Elementary School welcomed back an old friend when former teacher and author Susie Minus Tait.

Tait, who recently co-authored her first book Pedro and Carlos with her daughter Jacqueline, wanted to come back and see some of her old friends and share the work with them.

The plot of the book shows two unlikely friends in Pedro, who is an octopus and Carlos, who is a crab joining together for an unforgettable adventure. During their travels the two learn to accept their differences, overcome their fears, survive the dangers of the ocean all the while building a true and lasting friendship.

Tait said a lot of effort went into the book. It began when she was a teacher at Linden Elementary and continued off and on until now. Tait was forced to stop work when she was diagnosed with cancer. However, she beat the disease and was able to finish the book with the help of a very special person.

“I worked on the book for a long, long time. I was working on it even when I was a teacher here. I was working on it even back in 1997,” Tait said. “I started to do it and I had an agent and she said to let her have it for about two years. I didn’t pick it up fro a while after that. God always works things out for you because when I did pick the book back up again my daughter was able to help me out with it and it became our book instead of my book.”

Tait said it was a special experience and she learned a lot about parent child relationships.

“That made it special to me because it was something that we did together,” Tait said. “It taught me that it is always fun to do something with your parents. Whether you want to build something or make something or invent a new recipe. There are all kinds of things that you can do together and have a lot of fun.”

Tait’s inspiration for the book was to show children that even though there are many different shapes, sizes and personalities of people we could all get along.

“The main goal in this book to show that everyone is different, but we can all be friends,” Tait said. “None of you are just alike, but we can still all be friends. If we were all alike it would be pretty boring.”

After her visit to Linden Elementary Tait had another positive experience when she was reunited with her old class at George P. Austin Junior High. Tait said she was very eager to visit because they were the last class she had before she left.

“The book wasn’t really geared for their age group, but I still wanted to go see them because I missed them so much,” Tait said. “I really wanted to see them again.”

Following Tait’s visits she autographed copies of her book and prints.