Why Can’t We be Friends is a humorous picture book about friendship that adults will enjoy too.

Ike (a porcupine) and Mae (a skunk) do everything together until their pokey, stinky shortcomings cause increasing problems, eventually ending their friendship. Will their obvious differences keep them apart forever, or will they discover the hidden strengths in each other’s annoying differences?

AVAILABLE SOON

The Book in the Making

Ike ands Mae have been hanging out in my office/studio for many years. They first appeared as a fun illustration depicting what change often feels like for me. I wrote the words, “Embrace the Change” above their heads. As time went by, they started taking to me about friendship, specifically theirs, and maybe all friendships. Then, as I obsereved my oldest granddaughter, who was about 4 at the time, with her friend Logan, I realized their friendship too resembled the porcupine and skunk in my office. Logan and Annabeth helped me realize friendships are particularly difficult when you are young and just learning to develop them.

I hope Ike and Mae’s story will help kids realize the good aspects hidden within the annoying traits they see in their friends, and also in themselves; that they can learn to laugh at them, and even appreciate them, and realize the ups and downs don’t end friendships, they are the stuff that makes them strong.