Now Everybody Really Hates Me [Paperback]

Jane Read Martin (Author), Roz Chast (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: K and up

Good-bye Cruel World!

Patty Jane Pepper is being unjustly punished. Her parents claim that she punched her brother Theodore. In fact, she only touched him--hard. And she didn't call him a dumbbell, either. She just called him a dumb head. Nonetheless, she's been sent to her room.

So Patty Jane decides to punish her parents back. She'll stay in her room--forever. She'll stay up really, really, really late (so that when she goes to bed it will be the next day), speak in a code that only she understands, and never, ever eat again. Unless, of course, there's something good for dinner...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In exile from her brother's birthday party, a spirited girl muses on what she will and will not do during her self-imposed lifetime sentence in her bedroom. "Zany, hilariously detailed pictures" provide "an ideal match for the jaunty text," said PW. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (January 25, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0064434400
• ISBN-13: 978-0064434409
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #281,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A joy for children and parents alike!, November 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Now Everybody Really Hates Me (Hardcover)

The humor in this delightful, colorful book will please parents as much as children.... Martin and Marx capture the tone of the child in all of us who plots sweet revenge against a sibling. A fun book to read aloud.... I laughed out loud, and so did my four-year old companion.

5.0 out of 5 stars Childhood Favorite, May 4, 2011

By 

rachelauren (Fullerton, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Now Everybody Really Hates Me (Turtleback)

My mother bought this book for me when I was a child (I'm now 21), because I had a habit of telling her I hated her and saying nobody liked me all the time. My brother was also recently born (and he just turned 15). It was always one of my favorites. I connected very well with Patty Jane, I remember. I found her hilarious, but being seven, I also understood her, which was probably the most important thing at the time. She's ridiculous, of course, as children can be at times, but she amused me. My favorite part was when she decided to make up her own language, because that was something I did frequently. She did all the silly things that I wanted to do, and wished I could do, like building a tunnel, etc. I think that if I can remember this book 14 years later, and still remember how much I loved it, and actually want to read it again right now, that it's a book worth buying.

4.0 out of 5 stars Not For the Chast but Not Without Her, August 8, 2005

By 

Benjamin Marcus (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Now Everybody Really Hates Me (School & Library Binding)

For lovers of Roz Chaste, this is not her writing - only her drawings, so not the wry and pointed humor you might expect. Still, if you love a child who is a grump, a crank or a bossy know-it-all, this may be for her/him. Roz's illustrations make the moral easier to swallow. A good lesson to have on your shelf. And gotta love that Roz.