Now I Will Never Leave the Dinner Table (1996)

      Now I will never leave the dinner table (1996) by Jane Reed Martin and Patricia Marx, and illustrated by Roz Chast has a familiar theme; Patty Jane Pepper has many complaints about her perfect older sister. It's interesting to see how different authors work with classic topics like this one. Joy, the older sister, is babysitting during dinner time, demanding that Patty Jane eat her spinach. Patty Jane takes this opportunity to describe how she feels about her sister: Joy doesn’t like to have fun, has invented 17 ways to cook spinach, eats candy with a fork, folds her shirts neatly, and tattletales on Patty Jane. 

     Patty Jane imagines all kinds of possible responses to her sister. For example, if Joy were to move up the street to live with a stern older couple, Patty Jean would throw all the neatly folded shirts out the window to assist with the move, rent out Joy's diary for two dollars a day, and eat all her dessert. Patty Jean's solution is foreshadowed early in the story when she figures out a way to eat her spinach.  Then, she changes her mind. "Perhaps it would be best for everyone if I allow Joy to remain here." This ending feels too easy.

      I like Roz Chast's use of mugshots to describe Joy and I like the format variations; sometimes an illustration is a full page, sometimes it’s framed; sometimes there’s a couple of illustrations on each page; and there's a two-page spread. Her illustration of Patty Jean's gum keychain collection feels out of character. The book is another option for children with "perfect" older sisters.