Comment

On Account of the Gum, written and illustrated by Adam Rex, is a fast paced, laugh out loud book that will delight your kids. An increasingly difficult situation that makes such a superb story all started with a mere piece of gum. “That’s the gum. Right there. That you got in your hair.” Brace yourself--This seemly simple predicament to solve might as well be rocket science to whoever’s trying to get the gum out of the kid’s hair. It doesn’t matter if it’s advice posted on a website, your aunt, your grandpa...you get the picture. Soon enough, thanks to all the suggestions people made, the kid has a pile of objects (like a cat, a vacuum cleaner, butter, etc.) stuck to his hair. When the kid yells at a couple of firemen and a police officer to stop before they dump a pot of chili on him, the gum finally leaves, but of course, everything else is still stuck up in his hair. Yes, on picture day too. Just great. It’s not exactly clear how he got the gum in his hair though. Before the story technically starts, there’s a series of illustrations that shows the kid blowing a gum bubble in bed, it getting stuck to his hand when he wakes up, and then him rubbing his hair, so I suppose that’s Rex’s explanation to how the gum got stuck, but it wasn’t immediately evident to me until I looked at the book a couple more times. But, that said, On Account of the Gum is worth reading as it is quite entertaining. --Olivia R, a PCPL Virtual Volunteer