Before reading, ask students to tell about experiences they have had making new friends. Prompt students with a question such as, “What did you do to get to know this new friend?” You could also ask students to describe what they feel is anenemy. “How does it feel to have an enemy?” “How does it feel to have a friend?” This could lead to, “Today we are going to read a story about a boy who has one person on his enemy list and how his father helps him get rid of his enemy.”

• After page 6, ask students to describe evidence that Dad has made the recipe for Enemy Pie before.
• After page 8, ask students to explain why the main character is confused.
• After page 14, ask students why they think Dad is having his son spend an entire day with his enemy.
• After page 22, ask students what they think the main character is learning about Jeremy Ross.
• After page 26, ask students to use adjectives to describe how they think main character is feeling and why.
• After page 28, ask students to share evidence that Jeremy Ross was confused.
• At the end of the story, ask students what they think Dad wanted to teach his son about enemies.

This text provides many opportunities to model how punctuation changes-the tone of reading. Possible examples:

• P. 6 – “Tell you how? I’ll show you how!”
• P. 8 – “What kinds of things – disgusting things – would I put into a pie for an enemy?
• P. 10 – But when I was in the backyard, looking for ladybugs, I smelled something really, really, really good.
• P. 28 – Jeremy, don’t eat it! It’s bad pie! I think it’s poisonous or something!”
• P. 29 – If it’s so bad, then why has your dad already eaten half of it?

Pull out and discuss interesting words in this text such as: enemy, recipe, faded, squinted, disgusting, boomerang, ingredients, horrible, confused, panicked, crumpled, mumbled.