Horn Book

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. But several remain; and on this, of all days. A rollicking cumulative tale that many listeners will want to choose and re-chew-se. ELISSA GERSHOWITZ