A parent might reach for this book when their child comes home from school hurt by a friendship squabble, using dramatic words like 'enemy' or 'I hate them'. This story follows a young boy who tries to sort his classmates into two simple categories: friends and enemies. He quickly discovers that people are much more complicated and that feelings like jealousy and misunderstanding can make things messy. Through gentle humor, the book explores themes of empathy, resilience, and the gray areas of social relationships. It's an excellent choice for early elementary schoolers as it normalizes the big, confusing feelings of navigating peer groups and models how to look past first impressions to find common ground.
The book deals directly with social conflict, exclusion, and name-calling (specifically, labeling someone an "enemy"). The approach is grounded in a child's realistic perspective, using humor to soften the topic. It is a secular story. The resolution is hopeful and constructive, focusing on the protagonist's growth in empathy and understanding rather than on punishment or revenge.
Ideal Reader
This book is perfect for a 6 to 8-year-old who is beginning to navigate complex peer dynamics and tends to see social situations in all-or-nothing terms. It's for the child who has just declared a former friend an "enemy" over a playground disagreement or feels jealous of a sibling's or friend's new relationships.
Parent Prep
This book can be read cold. The content is gentle and relatable. However, a parent should be prepared for a follow-up conversation. The most fruitful discussions will come from pausing after scenes of conflict, like when the main character feels left out, and asking the child how they might feel in that situation. A parent hears their child say, "Leo is my enemy now, I'm never talking to him again!" or sees their child struggling to understand why a friend might want to play with someone else. The trigger is witnessing a child's rigid, dramatic, and hurt reaction to a normal peer conflict.
Age Experience
A 6-year-old will connect with the humor and the basic idea that it's not nice to label people. An 8-year-old will grasp the more nuanced message about empathy, jealousy, and the complexity of human relationships. The older child may also relate more deeply to the feeling of creating an identity within a social group.
What Makes It Special
Unlike many books that focus on a clear bully-victim dynamic, this story is told from the perspective of the child who is doing the labeling. It uniquely explores the internal motivations (insecurity, jealousy) behind social categorization. Its first-person, humorous narrative makes the lesson on empathy feel discovered by the character rather than taught by the author.
Read plot summary
The narrator, Sam, creates a notebook to categorize his classmates as either "Friends" or "Enemies." His best friend is at the top of the friend list, while a new, popular kid named Alex is labeled the number one enemy. The story follows Sam's school-day interactions, where he is forced to confront his own black-and-white thinking. He sees his supposed enemy show kindness and even has a temporary falling-out with his best friend. Ultimately, Sam realizes his rigid labels are unhelpful and unfair, and he learns that empathy is a better guide for navigating relationships.
This overview was generated by AI based on the book's content and reviews, and may not capture every nuance.
Discussion Prompts
1
At the start, Sam put Alex in the 'Enemies' column. Why do you think he did that? Were his reasons fair?
2
Remember the part where Sam felt left out on the playground? What did he do? What are some other things he could have done in that moment?
3
By the end of the book, Sam decides his 'Enemies' list isn't a good idea. What do you think he learned about people and friendship?
4
If you were making a book about your class, what would the title be? Would you use the word 'enemies'?
