Are We Still Friends?

Beatrice and Abel are the finest of friends. Beatrice raises bees. Abel grows apples. In summer, they gather sticky, sweet honey together, and in fall, they harvest ripe, red fruit. They make a perfect pair in every season, and so do the bees and the trees.

Until one spring morning, Abel startles a bee--ZING!--and gets stung. "WHEE HEE HEE!" he cries. But Beatrice hears only the silly sounds and laughs. OUCH! Is their friendship strong and steady enough to weather the stinging words and messy quarrel that stem from misunderstanding?

Friendship and nature form the perfect pair in this warm and winsome celebration of teamwork, ecology, and the art of saying "I'm sorry."

Ruth Horowitz is the daughter of a school librarian and a newspaper editor, so it’s no surprise she grew up with a passion for stories. She loves to eat apples dipped in honey on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which was one of her inspirations for writing Are We Still Friends? She lives in Rhode Island with her husband. You can visit her online at www.ruthhorowitz.com.

Blanca Gomez started drawing illustrations for her mom when she was a child, and hasn’t stopped. Now she illustrates for people all over the world through her Etsy shop and in picture books such as One Family by George Shannon. Her favorite apple snack is apple pie (with vanilla ice cream, of course). She lives in Madrid, Spain. You can visit her online at www.cosasminimas.com.