Book Posts - Our Dining Table

Cathy G.'s Book Posts

Book recommendations for young readers, educators + caregivers!

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Our Dining Table, Story & Art by Mita Ori, 180 pages, Seven Seas Entertainment, 2019

Age Recommendation: Older Teen. Ages of the protagonsists are early 20’s, and may be more interesting to an older teen audience.

Intro: “Eating around other people is a struggle for salaryman Yutaka, despite his talent for cooking. All that changes when he meets Minoru and Tane — two brothers, many years apart in age — who ask him to teach them how to make his delicious food! It’s not long before Yutaka finds himself falling hard for the meals they share together — and falling in love!” (from the back of the book)

Theme 1: Found Family. Yutaka is a young man who has a difficult relationship with his adoptive family. He lost his parents at a young age, and relatives took him in, but he was never fully accepted. Our Dining Table is about Yutaka finding a new family in young man Minoru and his four-year-old brother, Tane. As the story progresses, you learn Minoru and Tane were also in need of Yutaka.

Theme 2: Loss. Throughout the story, all the characters have experienced some kind of death in their lives. The new friendship and love they build with each other is not only a way of moving forward, but also a way of honoring and remembering the loved ones that have been lost.

Theme 3: Verbal + Non-Verbal Communication. Yutaka and Minoru have a difficult time using their words to communicate with each other, but through other interactions such as cooking, their romance blooms. It helps that little brother Tane is also a very honest and open communicator!

Should I Read It?: Our Dining Table is a wonderful book about losing loved ones and finding new ones. I recommend it for older teens who enjoy romance and slice-of-life stories.