Illustration of kid making a pie with dirt and worms for their enemy
Art by Tara Calahan King

Enemy Pie

What can you do about a kid you don’t like? Here’s a tasty idea.

By Derek Munson | Art by Tara Calahan King
From the March/April 2023 Issue
Lexiles: 500L
Guided Reading Level: M
DRA Level: 20-24
Vocabulary: squinted, satisfied, boomerang, panicked, crumpled, relieved
Think and Read

As you read, think about what the narrator learns about enemies and friends.

It should’ve been a perfect summer. My dad helped me build a tree house. My sister was at camp. And I was on the best baseball team in town. It should’ve been a perfect summer. But it wasn’t. 

It was all good until Jeremy Ross moved into the neighborhood. I didn’t like Jeremy. He laughed when he struck me out in baseball. He had a party on his trampoline, and I wasn’t invited. 

Jeremy Ross was the only person on my enemy list. I never even had an enemy list before. But he came along, and I needed one. I hung it up in my tree house, where Jeremy Ross was not allowed. 

Dad understood stuff like enemies. He told me that when he was my age, he had enemies too. But he knew a way to get rid of them. 

He pulled an old recipe book off the kitchen shelf. Inside was a scrap of paper with faded writing. Dad squinted at it. 

“Enemy Pie,” he said, satisfied.

Bye-Bye, Enemies

You may be wondering what exactly is in Enemy Pie. I was too. But Dad said the recipe was so secret, he couldn’t tell me. I begged him to tell me something—anything. 

“I will tell you this,” he said. “Enemy Pie is the fastest known way to get rid of enemies.”

This got my mind working. What kinds of things—disgusting things—would I put into a pie for an enemy? I brought Dad weeds, but he shook his head. I brought earthworms, but he didn’t need those. I gave him the gum I’d been chewing. He gave it right back. 

I went out to play, alone. I listened to the sounds of my dad making Enemy Pie. I tried to imagine how horrible it must smell. Instead, I smelled something really, really good coming from our kitchen. I was confused. 

I went in to ask what was wrong. Enemy Pie shouldn’t smell this good. But Dad was smart. “If Enemy Pie smelled bad, your enemy would never eat it,” he said. He pulled the pie out of the oven. It looked good enough to eat!

But still, I wasn’t sure how Enemy Pie worked. What exactly did it do to enemies? Maybe it made their hair fall out. I asked Dad, but he wouldn’t tell me. 

While the pie cooled, he filled me in on my job. “There is one part of Enemy Pie that I can’t do. You need to spend a day with your enemy. Even worse, you have to be nice to him. That’s the only way Enemy Pie can work. Are you sure you want to go through with this?” 

It sounded horrible. It was scary. But it was worth a try. I just had to spend one day with Jeremy Ross, then he’d be out of my hair for the rest of my life. I knocked on his door.

Enemies Allowed?

When Jeremy opened the door, he seemed surprised. 

I was nervous. “Can you come out and play?” I asked. 

He looked confused. “I’ll ask my mom,” he said. He came back holding his shoes.

We rode bikes and played on the trampoline. Jeremy’s mom made us lunch. After lunch, we went to my house. 

It was strange. I was kind of having fun with my enemy. But I couldn’t tell Dad that, since he had worked so hard on the Enemy Pie. 

Jeremy knew how to throw a boomerang. He threw it, and it came right back to him. I threw it, and it went into my backyard. When we climbed over the fence to find it, the first thing Jeremy noticed was my tree house. 

“Can we go in it?” he asked. 

I knew he was going to ask that! But he was the top person, the ONLY person, on my enemy list. And enemies aren’t allowed in my tree house. 

But he did teach me to throw a boomerang. And he did let me play on his trampoline. He wasn’t being a very good enemy. 

“OK,” I said, “but hold on.” I climbed up first and tore the enemy list off the wall. 

We played games until my dad called us down for dinner. 

Dad made macaroni and cheese—my favorite. Jeremy’s too! Maybe Jeremy Ross wasn’t so bad after all. I was beginning to think that we should just forget about Enemy Pie.

Losing a Best Enemy

But after dinner, Dad brought out the pie and cut it into slices. 

“Dad,” I said, “it’s sure nice having a new friend in the neighborhood.” I was trying to tell him that Jeremy was no longer my enemy. But Dad only smiled and nodded. I think he thought I was just pretending. 

“Wow!” Jeremy said. “My dad never makes pies like this.” Suddenly, I panicked. I didn’t want Jeremy to eat Enemy Pie! He was my friend! 

“Jeremy, don’t eat it! I think it’s poisonous or something!” Jeremy crumpled his eyebrows and looked at me funny. I felt relieved. I had saved his life. 

I was a hero.

“If it’s so bad,” Jeremy asked, “why has your dad already eaten half of it?” 

I looked at my dad. He was eating Enemy Pie! 

“Good stuff,” was all Dad said. I watched them eat Enemy Pie. Dad was laughing. Jeremy was happily eating. And neither of them was losing any hair! It seemed safe enough, so I took a tiny taste. Enemy Pie was delicious! 

Afterward, Jeremy invited me to play on his trampoline in the morning. 

I still don’t know how to make Enemy Pie. I still wonder if enemies hate it or if their hair falls out. But I don’t know if I’ll ever get an answer, because I just lost my best enemy.

Slideshows (1)
Activities (5)
Quizzes (2)
Quizzes (2)
Answer Key (1)
Slideshows (1)
Activities (5) Download All Quizzes and Activities
Quizzes (2)
Quizzes (2)
Answer Key (1)

About the Story

Casel Social-emotional Learning Focus

Relationship skills: Relationship building

Vocabulary

squinted, satisfied, boomerang, panicked, crumpled, relieved

Step-by-Step Lesson Plan

1. BEFORE READING

Text Preview Bookmarks (5-10 minutes)
  • Students can use these evergreen bookmarks to help them preview the text. Our skills page has both fiction and nonfiction options for kids to cut out. They can use the fiction bookmark for this story.

2. READ THE STORY (10-20 MINUTES)

  • Kids can read this story individually, in small groups, or as a whole class.
  • Check comprehension as you read the story with the Pause and Think questions. These help check basic comprehension as you go along.

3. AFTER READING

Play the Vocabulary Slideshow (5 minutes)

  • Now that your students have read the article, they have context for understanding the new words that appeared in it. Play the vocabulary slideshow after reading to reinforce these new words. Students can hear the definitions of the words read aloud and see photos illustrating each word. They can also practice saying the words out loud.

4. AFTER READING: FOCUS ON ELA SKILLS

Pick and choose from a variety of activities:

 

Assessment: Quiz (10 minutes)

  • Pass out the quiz, which will help you assess students’ reading comprehension.
  • We also offer a lower-level quiz.

ELA Focus: Word Work (15 minutes)

  • Ask students to fill out the printable “Word Work,” ask students to answer questions about the meanings of words and phrases in the story.

ELA Focus: Writing (20 minutes)

  • Using the “Letter to Dad” printable, kids can pretend to be the main character in the story writing to his dad about how his feelings toward Jeremy changed.

ELA Focus: Story Map

  • As a class, discuss the characters, setting, and key events in the story.
  • During or after the discussion, ask students to fill out the “Story Map” printable.

Whole Issue Scavenger Hunt (15 minutes)

We created a scavenger hunt for several stories in this month’s Storyworks 2, including this fiction piece. The scavenger hunt can be done by students independently at home or during class time.

  • This is a self-contained group of slides that guide your students on a scavenger hunt through the whole issue. It’s not only fun, it also helps them make text-to-text connections.
  • Students can do the scavenger hunt at home or during class time.

Text-to-Speech