Are We Still Friends?
Ages 4-8
Illustrated by Blanca Gomez
Scholastic Press (2017)
Available in hardcover, paperback (English and Spanish), e-book
In summer, when honey filled Beatrice’s hives, she hollered, “Halloo, Abel! You free?” and he crossed the low wall to help gather the sticky, sweet liquid.
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 enough to weather the stinging words and messy quarrel that stem from misunderstanding?
Friendship and nature form a perfect pair in this warm and winsome celebration of teamwork, ecology, and the art of saying, “I’m sorry.”
Reviews
“The pleasure in Horowitz’s story comes from its rhythmic, patterned text…and its gentle understanding of how a little misunderstanding can blow up into a big rift. A sweetly humorous story for the friendship shelf.”
—Kirkus Reviews
”Without dismissing their characters’ emotions, Horowitz and Gomez alert readers to a core truth: whatever our trivial disputes, the world keeps spinning.” —Publisher’s Weekly
“A solid title for those seeking tales about reconciliation, with a bonus horticulture lesson on pollination thrown in for good measure. A fine addition to classroom and library collections.” —School Library Journal
“A good read-aloud story for early elementary classrooms.” —Upstate Parent
Honors
- A PJ Library Selection 2022
More
Also available in Spanish!
The Story Behind the Story
Are We Still Friends? is a story about friendship and fights, bees and blossoms, and — as the bees continue to go about their business in spite of Beatrice and Abel’s foolish attempts to thwart them – it’s a story about persistence.
The story behind Are We Still Friends? is also a story about persistence. And surprises.
It begins in September, 1991. Our kids are six and four, and we’re living in Vermont. We go apple picking, and I notice that the orchard sells honey as well as apples. It’s around Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, when it’s traditional to eat apples dipped in honey for a sweet new year. But now I realize the natural connection between apples and honey, and the germ of a story is sparked.
I call my story Trees and Bees, and create a character, Jacob Applebaum, owner of Applebaum’s Orchard and Apiary. But a story needs conflict. What if the orchard and the apiary are run by two different people, who get into a fight? Jacob Applebaum becomes neighbors Beatrice and Abel, and their story emerges.
In those days, manuscripts are submitted on physical paper sent through the mail. To help editors envision their words in book form, picture book writers are advised to include a dummy – even if they’re not artists. My Beatrice has a long, pointy nose, like her bees’ stingers, and my Abel is round and shiny like his apples (and balding, like my dad).
In November 1991, two months and dozens (and dozens) of drafts after my initial idea, I start sending Bees in the Trees to editors, one at a time.
I enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope, so they can return my manuscript if they don’t want it. Some editors include a letter explaining why they’re saying no.
Over the next fourteen years, I publish three more kids’ books, and in 2006, after 26 rejections, I give up on Bees in the Trees. I finish a big adult novel, and sign with an agent, and then with a new agent. My new agent asks about my kids’ books, and in September, 2012, she sends Bees in the Trees to editors. Many editors, simultaneously. Electrically. No dummy.
And then, in December 2012, a miracle occurs. Tracy Mack at Scholastic Press wants to publish Bees in the Trees!
It will take five more years – until 2017 – for the story to become a book. Along the way, it will through more rewrites, including getting a new title.
Much to my surprise, our amazing illustrator, Blanca Gomez will reveal that Beatrice and Abel are not a pointy nosed lady and a balding man, but a bear and a mouse!