Gaga Mistake Day

Who wouldn’t love spending time with a memorable grandmother like this?

With bright bursts of color and extravagant scenes, the book whisks readers away into their playful world from the very first page.

Unconventional Gaga is a downright delight—like her granddaughter, young readers will revel in the carefree silliness of these shared “mistake days.”

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 conspi- ratorial delight that she and her grandchild share. Ages 4-8. (Apr.)

Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

"As the Straubs highlight with panache the importance—and pleasure—of breaking the rules, Love captures Gaga's Auntie Mame-style dash, spontaneity, and sartorial splendor, and the air of conspiratorial delight that she and her grandchild share. " —Publishers Weekly

"This is a gently comical tribute to warm, deeply loving grandmother-grandchild relationships. 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. " —Kirkus

"Pencil, watercolor, and gouache in Love's recognizable style add an extra dose of magic to the pair's fanciful days. With bright bursts of color and extravagant scenes, the reader is whisked away into their playful world from the very first page. " —The Horn Book Magazine

"Award-winning illustrator Jessica Love uses vivid sweeps of color and expressive linework in dynamic compositions, adding cleverly observed details, to bring this sprightly character and her quirky antics to something decidedly larger-than-life. Young readers will revel in the carefree silliness of these shared "mistake days." —Booklist