Book: Enemy Pie
Author: Derek Munson
Illustrated by: Tara King
Online Source: Storyline Online
Summary of the book:
Enemy Pie was a very good book about a boy who is planning on having a wonderful summer. Everything is going right for him so far until one boy, Jeremy Ross, moved into town. Jeremy Ross had quickly made this boy's first "enemies list" ever. He did things such as laugh at the boy when he was struck out in baseball and didn't invite him over to a trampoline party to which he had invited many of the other children.
The boy needs some advice about what to do with enemies so he talked to his father. Surprisingly his father had experiences with enemies when he was a child and even knew a way to get rid of them. His father's tactics of getting rid of enemies was something called "Enemy Pie".
This made the boy's mind wonder about what could be so bad and nasty about Enemy Pie that it would get rid of an enemy for virtually forever. Thoughts started to go through his head such as, "It'll make his hair fall out or maybe it will make his breath stink!". The only catch to getting your enemy to eat Enemy Pie was you had to spend the entire day with the person and be nice to them like they weren't your enemy.
The boy hated the idea of having to spend the day with his enemy, but he decided that one day with his enemy was much better than having to deal with him for the rest of his life. He goes to Jeremy's house and they start to play. After playing at Jeremy's house for awhile they headed back to the boy's house to play some more and to have supper.
After supper the boy's father brings out desert, which just happened to be the Enemy Pie. The thing was the boy had realized that Jeremy wasn't actually that bad and that they had a lot of fun together. He actually didn't consider him an enemy anymore. He warns Jeremy not to eat the pie because something bad might happen to him, but Jeremy notes that the boys father has already eaten most of his piece of pie.
This did slightly confuse the boy, but slowly they all started to eat the pie. It was very delicious and the best of all it actually worked! The boy had no clue how it worked or what was in the pie, but all he knows is that he had lost his best enemy and has gained a new friend.
Critique:
I rather enjoyed this book and feel that it would be a great book to read to students. It could be used for situations where you notice your students or children are making enemies with other students, perhaps bullying other students or being bullied, but also before you even notice anything happening as an act of prevention.
I can imagine that some students might catch on that the pie is actually just a normal pie before the more obvious conclusion, but there will also probably be students who are imagining what nasty and gross things that could be in the pie. It almost creates a situation where you could stop the book half way and do a project with the students to draw a pie with what they think might be in it. When the students are done making their pictures and sharing them with the class you could continue on with the story. This helps keep the students involved in the story. It gives this fun nature to reading and can create a positive attitude. G. Sloan said it best with, "The truly literate are not those who know how to read, but those who read: independently, responsively, critically, and because they want to. The first real business of reading instruction is to make children want to read." Doing small projects like this will help create the correct vision that reading can be fun and should be fun.
What I really like about this story is that it shows how people can create false images about how people really are based on what they currently know or a certain bias. The boy saw that because he Jeremy laughed at him when he struck out and when he wasn't invited to Jeremy's party that it meant Jeremy didn't like him. This could have been the reason behind Jeremy's actions, but there are also other explanations of what it could have been.
Perhaps Jeremy was just a little shy and didn't know the boy well enough to invite him to his party. A reason behind the laugh during the baseball game could simply be because Jeremy was happy that he struck the boy out and that his team was doing well. Another explanation of why he didn't invite Jeremy to the part could simply be because he forgot.
This kind of goes together with people shouldn't always assume people are a certain way. I think a good lesson to teach at the end of the book could be something about teaching students to always be open to making new friends even if they don't think they'll like the person because in the long run you might actually have a lot more in common then you think. For example in the book there is a part where the boy finds out that his favorite dish of food, macaroni and cheese, is actually Jeremy's favorite also.
In conclusion, this is a great book to teach children how to give everyone a chance at becoming friends and not to assume that somebody doesn't like you because of the way that they acted. It also creates great situations for small art projects and debates/discussions.
