On Account of the Gum by Adam Rex (review)

Rex, Adam On Account of the Gum; written and illus. by Adam Rex. Chronicle, 2020 [56p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781452181547 $17.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R 4-7 yrs

It's a fiasco that starts even before the title page, as our featured youngster falls asleep while chewing gum and wakes up with a gooey blob in their hair. The narrator, directly addressing the now sticky-headed child, chronicles increasingly unsuccessful attempts to untangle the situation: the scissors, a logical first effort, get caught; the butter, suggested by several websites, doesn't fare much better; the noodles and bacon from Grandpa don't work, nor do the bunny, the cat, the vacuum. Eventually, things get bad enough to call the fire department but, it turns out, all the gum needed was a sharp demand to "get out!" This absurd little tale reaches maximum goofiness with the help of droll rhyming text that builds in urgency as efforts get more silly: "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,/ and the guy with the bees said he'd get them here soon." A garish palette of bubble gum pinks, mint greens, and sour yellows combines with exaggerated caricature-styled figures for comedic chaos, and our poor put-upon kiddo endures the escalating trials with looks of accusation, terror, and eventually fury. The ousted gum finds a new home in a kitty's tail in the endpapers, an addition that will make an already giggling audience burst into belly laughs.