So Much Slime

From School Library Journal, Kadie Seitz
Making slime is easy, as long as you include three simple ingredients: glue, baking soda, and—what was that third ingredient again? In this companion to 2013’s Too Much Glue, Matty, a light-skinned boy with brown hair, is demonstrating making slime to his entire class when he realizes he forgot a crucial ingredient: saline. Without the saline, the slime is a growing, oozing, sticky mixture, taking over the classroom. Matty and his classmates try a variety of solutions, until finally finding some saline solution in the science room. The book ends with a slime recipe so readers can try their hand at making slime at home. Retz’s digital illustrations have a soft quality with lots of movement, and the way he is able to illustrate the magical properties of a special glow-in-the-dark slime is particularly compelling. VERDICT Purchase where books on slime are eagerly requested and consider pairing with an always welcome slime-making activity.

From Edwards Book Club Reviews, Christa McGrath
This children’s picture book will be a big hit with kids. I mean, what child wouldn’t want to know about how to make slime! It’s the perfect educational and sticky story that will entertain young readers (those aged 7-8 and younger) and send them off to the store to buy all the ingredients. And by “them”, I really mean the parents/guardians.
The story is about Matty whose fun-loving parents teach him how to make slime. Matty has so much fun that he wants to show his class how to make slime too. And so the slime adventure begins when Matty takes his demonstration to the classroom and you can only imagine the fun that follows. In the end, it all works out in the most perfect way. You just need to use some unique problem-solving skills and learn from all your mistakes!
Filled with many full-page, colourful illustrations, appropriate-sized fonts, and funny words (like COWABUNGA and SWOOOOOOSH), So Much Slime will make story-telling time SOOOO much fun. A brilliant book to add to any classroom or home bookshelf.

From Children’s Bookwatch Magazine, Midwest Book Review
Original, unique, imaginative, activity inspiring, fun and funny from start to finish, “So Much Slime” by author/storyteller Jason Lefebvre and artist/illustrator Zac Retz is especially and unreservedly recommended for family, elementary school, and community library picture book collections for children ages 5-7.

From Elmer’s
This is a story we could read over and over and over!

From June Squibb, Academy Award-nominated actress in her reading of So Much Slime
I love this book because it tells me that even if I make a mess, I can clean it up and it’ll be beautiful. That’s good to know! Even if something goes wrong, with help, with friends, with teachers, with mothers and dads, you can make them alright.

In the book, this young kid makes a mistake and it makes a huge mess. But between the teacher and the rest of the kids, they do everything that’s necessary to make it work, and they find out they can make it work, that it’s all right! It’s a great lesson for kids. It’s a great lesson.

From Courtney B. Vance, SAG-AFTRA Foundation President and Chairman, in a statement shared with PEOPLE Magazine online
So Much Slime is a story that shows children the importance of perseverance and ingenuity, and June’s performance makes every moment of it unforgettable. We’re also thrilled to have Elmer’s Glue as a sponsor, a partner that shares our commitment to fostering storytelling and advancing children’s literacy worldwide.

From Crystal Cahill, Elementary Library Teacher and Gr. 1 Teacher
What kid doesn’t love slime!? Such a silly, out-there book all about so so SO much slime exploding in an art classroom!!
When Matty brings his slime recipe to share with his classmates, he misses one key ingredient: saline!! So of course, the slime does not work out!! His classmates try and help him figure out how to fix it….. and things go from bad, to worse!
Great, bright, emotive illustrations really bring this story to life. Recipe for slime included – so this could make for a really fun classroom or homeschool read-aloud & activity.

From SeasonsOfKidLit
Lefebvre’s lively text paired with Retz’s colorful illustrations are a delight. Readers will laugh as Matty’s experiment starts to take over his classroom with its size and stickiness. They will especially enjoy the trial-and-error approaches to fixing their sticky situation. With STEM-filled facts woven into this comical story, So Much Slime is an excellent read for any season.

From Julie Hauswirth, educator and writer
A Spectacular STEAM Read-Aloud!
I recently shared an interview with author Jason Lefebvre, author of TOO MUCH GLUE and its upcoming companion, SO MUCH SLIME (September 2024). With a background in preschool education, it’s clear that Jason totally “gets” the joy that kids feel when they are given room to create and get messy in an environment where it’s okay to make a mistake.
Each of Jason’s picture books feature a creative kiddo named Matty and his passion for hands-on messy fun! With vibrant illustrations by Zac Retz and kid-centric words like “COWABUNGA!” and “icky, sticky swamp!”, this STEAM read-aloud is perfect for curious kids who love to experiment (and the understanding, patient adults who read to them!).
Synopsis: Matty gets permission from his parents and his art teacher to do a slime demonstration at school! But when he forgets a key ingredient, the slime takes over and turns into an icky, sticky swamp! Matty’s classmates try creative solutions to their sticky problem, but the swamp keeps spreading. Can they find the missing ingredient and save the slime?
What my Kids Loved: What kid doesn’t love slime?
My oldest enjoyed the how-to aspect of the book, particularly how adding “pizzaz” can enhance the slime. He also loved that the book includes a recipe for slime and was inspired to try his hand at creating a glow-in-the-dark batch (stay tuned for results).
My youngest asked to read this book over and over and over (and over and over…) again. He loved the “icky sticky swamp” refrain and the different approaches Matty’s classmates took in their attempts to clean up the spreading mess. He also loved all the fun words like “cowabunga”, “swoooooosh”, and “kaboom”.
What I Loved: As a mom, I get excited any time my children find a book that they want to read on repeat. It’s so fun to watch them light up when choosing a bedtime story, no matter how many times we read the same book! When my kids ask to return to a favorite story over and over, I know it means their love of reading is growing. It’s extra helpful when the book they want to read on repeat is fun and enjoyable for me! This book is easy to return to again and again.
I also loved that this book made my kids curious about slime and making things with their hands. Plus, the characters working together to solve the problem models critical thinking, experimentation, and perseverance, which I am all for!
As a writer, I appreciated Jason’s use of word choice and sensory details to engage the reader. Lines like “But the sand creates a wave- SWOOOOOOSH- and soon I’m surfing in the icky, sticky swamp.” immerse the reader in Matty’s experience and keep little ones entertained throughout the entire story. Top it off with a delightfully fun ending, and we’ve got a winner!
My favorite lines: “Look!” Owen says. “Felt letters are like tiny towels. Maybe these could soak up the swamp. A, B… Where’s the C?”
“There’s no time for A-B-C order!” Noah yells.
He flings felt letters at me until I’m in the eye of an alphabet storm.
Final thoughts: Kids love slime. Period. It’s fun to make and it feels super goopy! This book is an excellent companion to any slime-making activity and perfect for teaching cause and effect, multi-step processes, following a recipe, or the importance of working as a team. It’s a great addition to any elementary or preschool classroom!
You can request SO MUCH SLIME from your local library or purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other retailers–but don’t forget to check your local independent bookstore first!

From educator Heather Best (@creatingbookworms) and her reading therapy dog, Dolly
What a joyful story! Matty loves making slime at home. He wants to share this fun with his class. His art teacher allows him to show the class. However, Matty forgot the saline. Will this end as a disaster?

From blogger The HSP Bookshelf
So Much Slime by Jason Lefebvre illustrated by Zac Retz is a hilarious book about a kiddo named Matty who just loves making slime with his parents! With his art teacher’s permission, Matty brings the ingredients to school to do a demonstration but, to his (and his teacher’s) dismay, the slime doesn’t stick together! Matty reviews the ingredients and realizes that he forgot the fourth ingredient: saline! What follows is a hilarious series of attempts to fix the immense, gloopy mess. One kid points out that pom-poms are “like little mops” so they dump a bunch in. Sand? Nope. Felt letters?? Nope. Matty is now drowning in wet slop! Finally, they find some saline and the slime starts to hold together!! And bonus: Matty’s Slime Recipe is included!
This adorable book is so relatable as an ADHD mama. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started a recipe, only realizing that I’m missing a key ingredient until the kitchen is a disaster and I try to make do with what I’ve got. Anyone else relate?? My favorite fun fact about this book is that the illustrator has worked on some of our favorite movies, including Encanto and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish!

From Maria Marshall, The Picture Book Buzz
Okay, first off, great opening! The text and the character’s expressions immediately capture the reader’s attention.And having parents who don’t mind (and in fact encourage) a multi-colored, slime covered kitchen would be so cool. I love the colorful, realistic, and super detailed illustrations. Even before the story gets going, Zac Retz has offered the observant reader a plot hint. In addition to strategically placing glue, baking soda, and saline containers on the table – one of each container sits on the back counter with a number in front of it.
Mom agrees that Matty can take the ingredients to school and teach his class to make slime if it’s okay with his teacher. Then runs through the three things he needs. That night he stuffs “ALL the slime-making supplies” into his backpack. Or does he? The text and illustrations do a great job playing off each other. Readers will relish knowing more than Matty or later discovering these fun clues on a second read.
As a possible wink to the first book, Too Much Glue, Matty dumps SIX bottles of glue in a bowl (six times the amount they use at home!), adds the baking, and “um….the third. Oh, yeah! Pizzazz!” With a flourish, and a “COWABUNGA!”, Matty dumps the mix onto the table and suddenly realizes he’s forgotten the saline and instead of slime, he’s created an “icky, sticky, swamp.”
The teacher’s expressions are priceless, as one by one his classmates try to help by adding anything they can find in the craft closet – pom-poms, sand, and felt letters, When that doesn’t work, they start trying to “whip this swamp into slime.” But that just creates…bubbles.
Poor Matty. Now enveloped by the swamp up to his neck, could it get any worse? Well…you’re gonna want to check this out. The ending has a twist and lots of fun. Be sure to watch for additional playfulness in the illustrations. The bright, colorful digital illustrations beautifully complement and play off the fast-paced text sprinkled with onomatopoeia and humor. This is a great book to spark a playful interest in chemical reactions and slime. One sure to be read again and again.

From StoryTime KidTime, digital creator
This new sequel to Too Much Glue – which also features Crafting Gone Wild – is an exuberant celebration of creativity, science, supportive grownups, teamwork, and of course… SLIME!
Written by a librarian and illustrated by a film art director whose illustrations burst from the page, there’s so much to love…and a slime recipe at the end because resistance is futile.

From Melanie Dulaney, retired middle grade teacher-librarian
…I love this funny, classroom-centered, “fix your mistake,” STEMish picture book by Jason Lefebvre, illustrated by Zac Retz. Soon it will head to a school library in the district where I retired!

From Clarissa – Fun Reads for Kids, influencer and homeschool mother of five
Tell me the truth. Do you love slime?! So, while I’m not sure that I love it, my kids definitely do!
From the creators of Too Much Glue comes the hilarious work, So Much Slime! It’s a laugh out loud picture book about a boy named Matty, who does a slime presentation at school. When Matty forgets to bring one of the magic ingredients to make his slime, the art room turns into a bit of a disaster. Will Matt be able to get out of the sticky situation he created?
This is such an entertaining read aloud, with a recipe for slime in the back. Have this one on hand for the next rainy day!

From Sallie Lowenstein, award-winning author/illustrator
So Much Slime by Jason Lefebvre, illustrated by Zac Retz (Flashlight Press, 2024) is a romp of a book about a recipe for slime that gets away from its inventor. Not to be missed. Certainly to be enjoyed by kids!

From Cindy Mitchell, Kiss the Book blog
So Much Slime is a hilarious read as we wonder how the ongoing mess will ever be cleaned up. We all can relate to a show and tell gone wrong.  I was amused by Retz’s fun and colorful illustrations.

From Barbara Gruener, B.S., M.S., M.S., speaker, educator, author, coach
Themes: creativity, problem solving, teamwork
Brief synopsis: It’s puzzling to slime-loving scientist Matty when he demonstrates his slime-making skills to his class but the slippery stuff won’t stop spreading. Will finding and then adding the missing ingredient be able to control the chaos?
Why I like this book: In this companion to Too Much Glue, Matty is at it again, doing what he seems to do best: Making a mess. And what a masterful job this masterpiece’s illustrator does of depicting the mess this master mess-maker makes. Well, that’s a mouthful!
Matty starts with a great idea, to teach his friends in art class how to make slime. And who wouldn’t want to know that, because Matty knows he is not alone: Kids love slime! The squishier and stickier the better. The book’s readers will be thankful to know that Matty’s recipe for slime is included in the book’s back pages. Yay! But I digress; let’s get back to the book. So the problem begins with Matty forgets one super important ingredient in his easy slime recipe. Saline. It’s what turns the slime into … slime!
Maybe the school nurse has some?
And so begin the attempts at problem solving, to stop the spread of that sticky substance.
Watch out for hyperbole, onomatopoeia, and alliteration as this creative tale tickles your funny bone (Principal Stuckey?!) and slimes its ways onto your shelf of STEM faves.
If I were teaching with this book, I’d start by inquiring if they ever worked on a project that was not working about because they were missing something. Then we’d compare & contrast it with The Most Magnificent Thing.

From Doreen Sheridan, book critic from The Frumious Consortium
Matty is a grade-schooler who loves making homemade slime with his parents. When he gets permission to demonstrate how to make slime in art class at school, he’s super excited! He packs enough ingredients so that all his classmates can get some slime to take home with them, and repeats to himself the simple recipe his parents taught him: glue, baking soda, saline — and pizzazz!
His art teacher is at first a little perturbed by the sheer amount of slime Matty is planning on making. But Matty assures her that he knows what he’s doing… until he doesn’t. Examining the waves of sticky goop he’s unleashed in class, he realizes that he’s forgotten the saline! His classmates try to come up with creative ideas to sop up the mess that’s threatening to drown poor Matty, but their attempts to help only make the waves of slime get bigger. Will anybody be able to figure out how to fix things before it becomes an uncontrollable disaster?
This was an absolutely adorable picture book about making that toy? material? that so many kids (and their parents!) adore. Personally, I like slime for how it helps clean irregularly shaped items, but that’s neither here nor there. The enthusiasm of Matty and his parents is infectious, and even tho the demonstration goes a lot more haywire than planned, all’s well that ends well. Matty and his art teacher might be a little traumatized by the experience, but it’s clear that all the other kids had a blast as they tried to help solve the problem. Plus, the coda reinforces the fact that while not all experiments (or demonstrations) are successful, making notes of both what worked and what went wrong are valuable, scientific learning experiences.
Zac Retz’ digital art throughout is truly phenomenal, as he captures expressions at their utmost. Matty’s joy turns to a horror that’s almost perfectly mirrored by his poor art teacher, while his classmates’ faces run the gamut from sympathetic sobriety to sheer chaos goblin glee. Mr Retz’ background in animation shows in both his artistry and the adorableness of the characters and situations depicted, making his illustrations the perfect accompaniment for Jason Lefebvre’s charming story.

Elizabeth Everett, picture book author and former teacher
We recently read SO MUCH SLIME on Storyline Online. Here’s my 7-year-old’s review:
PLOT = really, really, liked
PICTURES = really liked
WORDS = loved
READ IT AGAIN? = definitely

From The Strawberry Fountain blog’s Easter Gift Guide
If you’re looking for a book for an under 5 but over 3 then I recommend So Much Slime by Jason Lefebvre, especially if your little one is in preschool or reception class as they will be able to imagine this story taking place and engage with it even more. It’s a fun story about Matty and a slime experiment gone wrong as he accidently fills his classroom with slime. It is beautifully illustrated by Zac Retz with pictures that are bound to make your child giggle and gawp in awe at the sheer mess Matty makes. 

About the Creators

Jason Lefebvre was a preschool paraprofessional and children’s librarian for many years, and currently he is the Assistant Director of the Holyoke (MA) Public Library. He is the author of Too Much Glue. He has written many other stories that he hopes to one day publish in which nobody ends up stuck to anything. He lives with his partner Jeannine and their pets in Holyoke, MA.
You can find out more about Jason and his work on his website.

 

Zac Retz is an artist in the entertainment industry who has worked for Disney, DreamWorks, Netflix, Illumination, and Sony. His past movies include Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Raya and the Last Dragon, Encanto, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Scoob!, and many more. Zac is currently an art director and production designer, and runs his own studio, Impetus Animation. He lives in Fayetteville, NY.
You can find out more about Zac and his work on his website or blog.

ISBN: HC 9781947277335 eBook 9781947277342  Audiobook 9781962269209  Read-along Audio 9781962269223
Print Length: 32 Full Color Pages
Publication Date: September 2024
Age Group: 4-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2024005755
Themes: STEM, Creativity, Problem-Solving, Friendship, Teamwork, Messiness, Acceptance

Activity Guides & More

Leveling Information

Fountas and Pinnell – Text Level L

Lexile Measurements provided by Metametrics:

Lexile Display: AD550L
Word Count: 819
MSL: 7
MLF: 3.313
Decoding: 81
Decoding Display: Very High
Semantic: 95
Semantic Display: Very High
Syntactic: 69
Syntactic Display: High
Structure: 87
Structure Display: Very High