Dr. Toughlove’s May 2026 selection is Enemy Pie by Derek Munson. This book was written in 2000, and has withstood the test of time! Enjoy!
Dr. Toughlove has recently discovered a delightful book entitled Enemy Pie, written by Derek Munson and illustrated by Tara Calahan King. Enemy Pie was published in 2000 and is experiencing a bit of a resurgence since celebrating its twenty-five-year anniversary last year.
The unnamed protagonist was enjoying a wonderful summer. His dad built him a treehouse, he was playing baseball and his sister went to camp for three weeks. All was going well until…………Jeremy Ross moved into the neighborhood. Jeremy laughed when he struck out our hero at a baseball game, he invited our hero’s best friend to his trampoline party (without including our hero), and the indignities go on and on.
At this point our protagonist decides to make an enemy list and tack it onto the door of his treehouse. There is only one name on it – Jeremy Ross. Feeling a high level of anger and disgust, our hero tells his dad about his enemy and asks for advice. Dad’s solution is quite ingenious – Dad tells his son that he will make an enemy pie for Jeremy to eat; however, the contents of the pie were not disclosed. In addition to baking the secret pie, there was a catch, our hero had to spend a day with the enemy. And even worse, according to his dad, our hero had to be nice to Jeremy. Then and only then would the enemy pie be served.
Dr. Toughlove doesn’t want to give the story away, but let it suffice to say that in the course of spending the day together the two boys discovered that they had more in common than they thought and could teach each other a few things. As the day progressed, the idea of serving Jeremy the enemy pie became less and less appealing.
There are several themes that are present in this book: friendship, empathy and forgiveness to name a few. Derek Munson weaves these ideas throughout the book in an elegant, subtle way. Tara Calahan King does a masterful job of depicting the characters and settings in a colorful, expressive fashion that will generate lots of discussion.
Enemy Pie, written by Derek Munson and illustrated by Tara Calahan King is suggested for readers aged 4-8 and can be found at your local library.