ON ACCOUNT OF THE GUM

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.