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PICTURE BOOKS
Rex, Adam

On Account of the Gum

56 pp. | Chronicle | October, 2020 | Trade ISBN 978-1-4521-8154-7 $17.99
(1) K-3 Shown wordlessly before the title page, our unnamed protagonist is in a sticky situation after falling asleep while chewing gum. Upon awakening, and after that unpleasant discovery, the child's ­gum-removal process begins, starting with scissors--which, whoops, get stuck to the gum, still in the hair. The ­narrator is offstage, but the advice is ­in-your-face, and progressively, hilariously, ­outrageous. There's an offbeat rhythm to the ­sometimes-rhyming text that, likewise, keeps listeners guessing. "We went on some websites. / And all of them swear / if you want to get scissors / and gum out of hair / you take two sticks of butter / and smear them along, // I see. / It appears that those / websites were wrong." The humor is in the page-turn (pre- and post-butter, for example); and the anticipation of what method the family will try next, shown in the unfailingly entertaining colorful and textured caricature illustrations centered on the wide-eyed child. Finally the kid has had enough--"STOP! GET OUT! Please," says the text, in bubble gum-looking speech balloons--leading to one of the problems being solved on this, a most important day. A rollicking cumulative tale that many listeners will want to choose and re-chew-se.
Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2021

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