My Next Book is Full of Mistakes

And also cats and snacks

One of the questions I got asked over and over again on my tour for This Time Tomorrow was, “So when are you going to write a book about your mother?” I love this line of reasoning, as if, har har, if you write a book about one parent, you are obligated to write one about the other one.

Well, it turns out, yes, I am, and yes, I did. Sort of.

My next book, which will be published by Rocky Pond Books in April, is called Gaga Mistake Day, and I wrote it with my mother, about a Gaga (which is what my children call my mom) very much like my own. Jessica Love, author and illustrator of Julian is a Mermaid and many other gorgeous books, drew the pictures.

Can I show you my two very favorite spreads? If I could, I would post every single page of the book, but then my publisher would get mad at me and so here is first pre-order link of several that I will sprinkle throughout this newsletter.

The leaves! The hat! The umbrella!

I love that this child has glasses, I love that Gaga has moves, I love it ALL. As you can see, Gaga is creative and fun and fully engaged. Wonky is the way. Wonky 4 life.

Here I am with my co-author, photo by the very lovely Alpha Smoot, in my mom’s garden, the Peter Straub Reading Room, in the bookstore on Montague Street. The plants are much bigger now.

My mom and Jessica and I signed THOUSANDS of tip-in sheets, so you should be able to pre-order a signed copy from your local independent bookstore, but of course, if you order one from Books Are Magic, we can personalize it and there will be some as-yet undecided-upon goodies to boot.

Life in the picture book world has been so astonishingly supportive, and I feel so lucky to get to hang out a bit longer. Thank you to everyone who bought a copy of Very Good Hats. I think if your small children like that one, they’ll like this one, too. It makes me cry, too, in a good way, the way my favorite picture books do. (Carson Ellis, if you’re reading, I still can’t read What Is Love without crying.)

Pre-order here! Woo hoo! My mom has been working toward this for, oh, thirty years. She’s got another book coming after this! Get in on the ground floor of Gaga! You know you want to!