Are We Still Friends? written by Ruth Horowitz, reviewed by Klaudia Janek

Student Reviewer: Pooja M.
Summary: The book “Are We Still Friends?” by Ruth Horowitz and illustrated by Blanca Gómez is a heart-warming tale about a bear, Beatrice, and a mouse, Abel, who are friends and neighbors. Beatrice raises bees and harvests honey. Abel grows apples and makes apple butter. They help each other with the raising of the bees and apples and build a wonderful bond. They, along with their bees and trees, are the perfect pair in each season. Until one spring morning when a bee gets startled by Abel and stings his nose. Abel then insults the bees which offends Beatrice. This prompts a long line of harsh insults between the two friends, such as “fuzz brain” and “pie face”. This causes them to disregard their friendship and their dependency on each other. Abel says that he does not “need her bees!” and Beatrice says that she does not “need him or his trees!”. Since they do not need or want each other’s things they try to create a barrier between their homes. They build up a wall of their random belongings yet the bees and trees continued their relationship. They kept building until the tower collapsed on Beatrice. Abel panicked since he thought he lost his friend and helped her. They realized how important friends are in life and went to eat apple butter toast and honey tea.

Straight Talk for Librarians: This fictional book can be used to teach the importance of friends and dependency to children. However, it is best to use it as a picture book for kids to read for fun. The book has a very warm tone and is very fun and extremely cute. It is very appealing to children of all ages. Even though they were both mean to each other they both admitted their wrong doings and remedied their friendship. The literature is very easy to read and follow. The illustrations make it even more engaging. The involvement of the idea of mutualism is beautifully presented in a digestible way. The author stated that Rosh Hashanah inspired her to write this book, and readers will be able to find small touches of Judaism in some of the illustrations. Earth tones are prevalent in the illustrations that seem to be watercolor, pencil and digital art. Parents may need to be prepared to make apple butter after their readers find the recipe in the back of the book. All in all this is a great picture book for all ages.