On Account of the Gum

Description

How do you get gum out of your hair - a pair of scissors? Butter? The cat? Call your aunt - she'll know what to do. She doesn't? Try the fire department! In this book, the best intentions lead to some of the worst (and funniest) ideas! With each page turn, this situation - relatable to any family - grows stickier and more desperate. From the madcap mind of Adam Rex comes a book about one protagonist's hilarious misadventures and the improbable, downright bizarre remedies for a problem kids have faced since the creation of gum. Serious humour abounds in this cumulative build-up of stuff stuck in hair, and the text's unexpected turns, fun rhyme, and wacky suggestions make it prime for constant giggles and repeat reading.

Adam Rex is a many-time New York Times-bestselling author with many awards to his name. He's the author and/or illustrator of such titles as The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors, School's First Day of School, and Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich, and has illustrated the work of many authors, including Jon Scieszka, Mac Barnett, Jeff Kinney, Kate DiCamillo, and Neil Gaiman. He is also the author of 2019's WHY?, illustrated by Claire Keane and 2020's Unstoppable, illustrated by Laura Park; the illustrator of Kate Messner's The Next President, and the author and illustrator of Nothing Rhymes With Orange.

"[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 "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 "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? 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 "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 "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