Conversational rhyme, cascading action, and dramatic page turns create a story of early-morning, get-ready-for-school chaos. Gum-wrapper endpaper illustrations collaged under a bubble gum–pink wash set the tone for escalating silliness . . . [On Account of the Gum is a] gloriously giggly tale glued together by a glob of very gooey gum."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Snappy second-person verse enumerates a family’s vain efforts to remove a blob of shocking pink bubblegum as Rex (Unstoppable) dreams up ever-grosser remedies for the hairy dilemma.”—Publisher’s Weekly
“Rex’s work is always humorous, smart, and delightfully absurd, and this is no exception. The hand-painted text has beautiful artistry to it, but it’s also a tongue-tangling, deliciously metered, rhyming absurdist story that begs to be read aloud in classrooms, libraries, and homes. . . . [B]rilliantly detailed. . . . the child’s expressions are masterpieces in and of themselves. . . . Rex is king of the picture books. Consider this required reading.”—Booklist, starred review
“[A]lready giggling audience[s will] burst into belly laughs.”—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
“A story of a sticky situation bursting with laughs, On Account of the Gum is a hilarious book from Adam Rex. The deadpan narrative voice in this book and the building chaos with each attempt to remove gum from the main character’s hair will keep kids chuckling and asking for more. It is reminiscent of the old nursery rhyme, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, except no one gets eaten . . . and it’s about gum . . . and the only old lady in it winds up stuck in the main character’s hair. So maybe it isn’t much like the old nursery rhyme at all. Don’t chew it over. Just buy the book.” —Ryan T. Higgins, bestselling author/illustrator of the Mother Bruce books and We Don’t Eat Our Classmates
“Adam Rex is one of the best writers making picture books today, and one of the best illustrators making picture books today, and On Account of the Gum just might be his best picture book yet. It’s perfect. You should read it.” —Mac Barnett, New York Times–bestselling author of the Caldecott Honor books Sam and Dave Dig a Hole and Extra Yarn
“In his first work of nonfiction, Adam Rex bravely shares his harrowing experience of gum-chewing gone horribly wrong. What? On Account of the Gum is not a true story's Oh. Well, then it’s just plain hilarious and any human will love it!” —Laurie Keller, Geisel Award winning author-illustrator of We Are Growing
“In Adam Rex's divine picture-book comedy of errors . . . Rex (School's First Day of School; Nothing Rhymes with Orange; Unstoppable), a master of meshuggaas, hastens along the humor with caricaturish illustrations in a fruity palette perfectly suited to the asimmer-with-irritation kid's hair wear, which comes to resemble a Carmen Miranda hat gone berserk. But underneath the silliness, On Account of the Gum harbors a substantive, empowering message. To borrow the book's idiom: There's a point to all of this rat-a-tat rhyme/ It turns out the kid had the cure the whole time.”—Shelf Awareness
11/13/2020
PreS-Gr 1—When a child goes to sleep with gum in their mouth, it seems inevitable that the gum will end up in their hair. The natural next step is to seek advice on how to remove the gum, from the Internet and family members, which proves to be disastrous. As objects accumulate in the child's hair, they become more and more frustrated. To make matters worse, it is not only the child's birthday but also school picture day! Like his other titles, such as Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich, Rex serves a delightful and laugh-out-loud read. This interactive take is great for a read-aloud as the reader becomes the narrator and engages in dialogue with the protagonist. The timing is perfect, as the page turn lands the punchline. The illustrated facial expressions of the gender neutral, pink-skinned child perfectly reflect their growing annoyance and upset as a cat, noodles, and a vacuum end up on their head. The textured pictures pop from the page with vibrant colors, often a bright bubblegum pink background, and the endpapers offer a collage of bubble gum wrappers. VERDICT A grand comedy that will engage readers and please Rex's many fans. —Kaitlin Malixi, Bucks County Free Library, Doylestown, PA
★ 2020-06-30
A series of silly and mostly unsuccessful solutions for removing a blob of bubble gum.
Conversational rhyme, cascading action, and dramatic page turns create a story of early-morning, get-ready-for-school chaos. Gum-wrapper endpaper illustrations collaged under a bubble gum–pink wash set the tone for escalating silliness that begins before the title page with illustrations of a kid falling asleep after blowing a bubble and ends a page turn after the last words. A narrator, never seen but ever helpful (“Okay: / We went on some websites. / And all of them swear…”) and increasingly harried (“All right, let’s get serious — / this is the plan: / We blow the gum out with a powerful fan. / Plus every few seconds we’ll pop a balloon”), will try anything to get the gum out: grass, a cat, noodles and bacon, a vacuum cleaner, a steaming pot of chili, and more. Full-page headshot illustrations capture the child’s reactions, including priceless eye rolls, fearful bug-eyes, and glassy-eyed resignation, until an unexpected solution stops the chaos in its tracks. The kid presents White, as do many depicted family members, but one, an older sibling perhaps, has brown skin. The punchline—that it’s school-picture day—arrives just in time to generate a fresh gale of giggles as the protagonist sits sans gum but with everything else still entangled in that hair.
A gloriously giggly tale glued together by a glob of very gooey gum. (Picture book. 4-8)
