Enemy Pie

Author: Derek Munson

Illustrator: Tara Calahan King 

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Grade level: K-3

It should have been a perfect summer for this little boy until a boy named Jeremy Ross moved into the neighborhood. He was a bully and would laugh at him. His dad said he knew a way to get rid of enemies. He pulled out a recipe book off the kitchen shelf and said "Enemy Pie." Enemy pie was a secret recipe and I thought of all the gross things you'd put in enemy pie. They were all gross things and his dad said that he didn't need any of those ingredients. He was confused when he smelt something really good and said that enemy pie shouldn't smell this good. Dad said that if it smelt bad the enemy wouldn't eat it and it looked good enough to eat. The little boy thought all these horrible things would happen when you eat enemy pie. Dad told him that he needed to be nice to him all day. They rode bikes for a while and threw water balloons. He was kind of having fun with his enemy. He couldn't tell his dad because he worked so hard on the enemy pie. He let him win a game just to be nice. Enemies aren't allowed in the treehouse but Jeremy was being a bad enemy and being nice. He tore the enemy list off the wall. He was thinking that he should just not give the enemy pie to Jeremy.  He told Jeremy not to eat the pie and he felt relieved that he had saved his life. His dad was eating half of the pie. They became friends. 

This book is good to talk about how to not judge someone. We can teach children how sometimes first impressions are not what that person is all about. We must always give someone a chance to prove and be themselves before we judge their character. 

The illustrations in this book are very fun. They are warm colors and showcase all the different emotions of the characters. They take up the whole page and are very cartoonish.