By Derek Munson
A boy's dad knows a secret recipe for getting rid of enemies, but it only works if you spend a whole day being kind to yours first.
The narrator's summer is going great until Jeremy Ross moves in down the street, laughs at him, and throws a party he isn't invited to. Just like that, Jeremy is Enemy Number One. Then Dad says he knows how to get rid of enemies for good: Enemy Pie. There's one catch. Before the pie will work, you have to spend a whole day being nice to your enemy — playing with him, sharing your lunch, acting like a friend. So the boy grits his teeth and does it, and somewhere between the trampoline and dinner, he stops wanting Jeremy to eat the pie at all.
It takes the word every child reaches for in a bad moment — enemy — and doesn't rush to correct it. The boy really was wronged: laughed at, left off a party list, and the book lets that sting sit. Then it gives him something to do instead of a lecture, and watching him warm up to Jeremy over one ordinary day is the whole pleasure of it. Some children who are sure they've got an enemy will recognize the feeling; others will just enjoy the sneaky-recipe setup and the twist at the end.