By Adam Rex
Junior Library Guild selection
Kansas NEA Reading Circle selection
Today Show Best Book of the Year
Nerdies Best Book of the Year
Children's Literature Association of Utah (CLAU) Beehive Award Nominee
★ "A gloriously giggly tale glued together by a glob of very gooey gum." —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
★ "[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
“The narrator is offstage, but the advice is in-your-face, and progressively, hilariously, outrageous. . . . A rollicking cumulative tale that many listeners will want to choose and re-chew-se.” —The Horn Book
"[A]lready giggling audience[s will] burst into belly laughs." —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"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
"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
“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, bestselling author of the Caldecott Honor books Sam and Dave Dig a Hole
“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