Gaga Mistake Day
ROCKY POND BOOKS, APRIL 9, 2024
When Grandma comes for a visit, silliness and creativity are guaranteed, in this funny and endearing book by bestselling novelist Emma Straub; her kids’ gaga, Susan Straub; and award-winning illustrator Jessica Love.
Gaga days are the best! That’s when this eccentric, mischievous grandma babysits her delighted granddaughter. These gaga days are always full of the silliest “mistakes,” like swapping eyeglasses and walking backward to the park. Like making the house safe by eating all the marshmallow goblins, filling the tub to bursting with bubbles, and then reading a bedtime story all the way through upside down.
With touches of Amelia Bedelia and Eloise, this irrepressible granny might just inspire delicious goofy, endlessly creative, bursting-with-love-grandma-grandchild playdates!
Praise For GAGA MISTAKE DAY:
★ KIRKUS REVIEWS 2/15/25
“Grandma’s so-called errors are enough to drive anyone gaga—but in the best possible way.
On Saturdays, when Gaga visits her 4-year-old grandchild—who narrates the story—she “makes lots of mistakes.” Sometimes she wears her fuzzy slippers on her ears. Or she and her grandchild switch their eyeglasses so neither of them can see a thing. Or she substitutes a chocolate bar for chewing gum, rationalizing, “Isn’t that gum? You can chew it.” Gaga sees nothing wrong in reading an upside-down book to the child. On treks to the park, the pair walk backward. Occasionally, the protagonist’s parents disapprove of Gaga’s ideas, such as feeding their child marshmallows before dinner or filling the tub to overflowing with soap bubbles. But grandchild and Gaga agree that “mistakes are fun, aren’t they?” This is a gently comical tribute to warm, deeply loving grandmother-grandchild relationships. Gaga clearly understands that adults can easily form close bonds with kids if they use humor, behave in a childlike manner themselves, and appreciate a youngster’s sense of wonder and absurdity. The message here is that more grown-ups should make the “mistake” of loosening up a bit. The dynamic pencil, watercolor, and gouache illustrations are as free-wheeling and entertaining as gray-haired Gaga, who is pale-skinned; the protagonists and the parents are brown-skinned.
Who wouldn’t love spending time with a memorable grandmother like this?”
★ PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 1/12/24
“Gaga, the glamorous grandmother of this book’s young narrator, revels in defying convention throughout a rollicking familial portrait by mother-daughter Susan (Reading with Babies, Toddlers & Twos, for adults) and Emma Straub (Very Good Hats). Cataloging the ways that Gaga turns things upside down when visiting her grandchild each week, the child begins broadly: “She makes lots of mistakes.” When grandmother and grandchild walk to the park, “Gaga makes up silly rules, like we can only walk backwards the whole way, or we can only walk on cracks in the sidewalk.” When the child, portrayed with light brown skin, teaches pale-skinned Gaga ballet moves, Gaga “does them all wonky.” Gaga sometimes annoys the grandchild’s parents by being generous with marsh- mallows before dinner, and filling the tub at bath time with mountains of bubbles that have to be mopped up. (“Mistakes are fun, aren’t they?” Gaga says.) As the Straubs highlight with panache the importance—and pleasure—of breaking the rules, Love (A Bed of Stars) captures Gaga’s Auntie Mame–style dash, spontaneity, and sartorial splendor, and the air of conspiratorial delight that she and her grandchild share. Ages 4–8.”