SANDY SPRINGS AUTHOR’S BOOK PROVES MAHJONG IS FOR ALL AGES!
For Gabby and Mark Spatt, mahjong is more than a game; it’s a family connection. Gabby is a director of an Atlanta-based family foundation and co-helms the mahjong instructional company, Let’s Rack and Roll Mahjong, while Mark is a partner at an investment firm, but both are creatives at heart. Gabby published her first children’s book, Shabbat and Sunday Dinner, in 2022. But Mark is the one who wrote the skeleton for the couple’s coauthored book, Bubbe and Bams, as a poem for the Spatts’ 4-year-old son, Simon. With approval from her son, Gabby suggested the couple turn Mark’s poem into a lengthier story, published in October 2025. Through its pages, a Bubbe (grandmother) teaches her granddaughter how to play the game as the little girl’s imagination brings the tiles to life.
“We both grew up watching our grandmothers and our mothers play with friends; it’s in our DNA,” Gabby says. While he’s not quite old enough to play the full game, Simon is wellversed in the tiles, having learned to count and match with them. The book reflects cultural roots while embracing inclusivity. After initially settling on the Yiddish influenced title Bubbe and Bams, which weaves in words such as l’dor v’dor (from generation to generation) and kibbitz (to chat), the couple created a second version of the book called Grandma Dottie’s Dots.
Both versions feature identical illustrations with only minor text changes, allowing families to choose their preferred cultural lens. Both books are $14.99 and are available at Kudzu and Veronica’s Attic in Sandy Springs as well as online.
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