Now Everybody Really Hates Me

Jane Read Martin's first book for children was Now Everybody Really Hates Me, an IRA/CBC Children's Choice of 1994, co-authored with Patricia Marx and illustrated by Roz Chast. Ms. Martin is a producer who lives in New York City.

Roz Chast is a well-known cartoon artist whose work appears regularly in The New Yorker and other magazines. Her most recent book for children is Gabby The Shrew, by Alfa-Betty Olsen and Marshall Efron. She lives in Connecticut.

Kindergarten-Grade 2-Sent to her room for hitting her younger brother at his birthday party, Patty Jane decides to stay there "for the rest of my life." After all, "I did not hit Theodore. I touched him hard." But after an hour or so of fantasies about what she'll do in her room, her family persuades her to emerge for some cake and ice cream. Patty Jane is as self-centered as many children can be when a sibling is in the spotlight, and whether her reactions amuse readers or just irritate them, they will certainly relate to them. But it's Chast's cartoons that make this book stand out. The opening double-page spread shows the well-stocked and incredibly messy room of a middle-class child, strewn with games, books, TV, clothes, and toys; on the bed is the pouty Patty Jane, lying next to a heart-shaped pillow inscribed "To a sweet girl." Succeeding pages lovingly delineate the likes, dislikes, and dreams of revenge of a put-upon older sister, and Chast gets the tone just right: childlike but heartfelt. Dress and hairstyles evoke the nerdiest years of the 1950s, while the never-ending array of consumer goods evokes the 1980s. Hardly an essential purchase, but sure to be appreciated by Chast fans, baby-boomer parents, and older sisters everywhere.
Caroline Parr, Central Rappahannock Regional Library, Fredericksburg, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.