THE CHEWING GUM ADVENTURES

A piece of chewing gum by the name of Green gets an entomology lesson when he escapes from the pack.

A candy-coated piece of gum’s fate is fraught: “Imagine, one minute you and your friends are enjoying a sleepover and the next you’re in a horrible, slimy mouth.” Green would rather be a bug in the garden. His friends help him make his wish real. Once in the garden, he meets up with a grasshopper, a Japanese beetle and a caterpillar, each with talents both spooky and fascinating. When they are swept up and put in a collection jar, Green gets to display a very special talent of his own. This is a short app, with a Zen-like simplicity of focus, spidery lines and washed colors that together defy the unlikely premise. Each page has a pulsing orb that lets readers trigger some action: Green is jettisoned from the package, whispery skulls rise from the leaf being eaten by the beetle—illustrating the word “skeletonising,” just one of a half dozen juicy words (mandible, dazzling) comfortably worked into the text—a butterfly net sweeps through the air—plus a couple with slapstick qualities. Green’s progress through the garden has its share of lessons, such as using your natural abilities, though it is plain engaging in its own right.

A memorably fine example of amusement and instruction