POP! THE INVENTION OF BUBBLE GUM is just. plain. fun. From one set of pink gumball dotted end pages to the other, it's fun. POP is the story of how Walter Diemer, an accountant at the Fleer Gum Factory in Philadelphia in the 1920's, invented bubble gum. It reads like a story. The characters in the illustrations, with their roundish, bubble gum shaped heads and round, bubble gum shaped eyes, add to the whimsy. A two page spread in the back includes a more extensive biography of Walter Diemer (Despite all of his gum chewing he still had all of his own teeth at age 85. And he married for the second time at 91!) There are also two bulleted lists of fun facts about gum (did you know that if you chew gum for a year straight you will lose eleven pounds!??) and a bibliography.
You could use this book in a unit on inventions. Maybe pair it with last year's CYBILS nominee, THE DAY GLO BROTHERS. Or use it in a unit about perseverance. Or just read it aloud. Because this one is just. plain. fun.