Let's Create for Halloween; Mark O'Brien's Magic Factory Halloween

‘Tis the season to be jolly, fa la...oops!, wrong season. Halloween is nearly upon us, with its horde of eager waifs wandering the streets collecting treats and smashing pumpkins of those unfortunates who stepped out for a quick candy refill. Two new videos offer creative ideas and pointless fluff. The first, Let's Create for Halloween, another fine effort from art teacher Ann Felice and her students, is a fun, spooky, and warm-hearted guide to making neat projects and having a safe and sane Halloween. Felice teaches her young charges how to make a number of nifty items, including noisemakers, candy boxes, paper bag pumpkins, tissue paper ghosts, and straw skeletons. As in other Let's Create programs (see Let's Create a Better World [VL-7/94]), Felice doesn't miss an opportunity to teach when presenting projects (the noisemaker assignment includes an introduction to rhythm, the straw skeletons come with a brief anatomy lesson, and so on). That these educational tidbits are seamlessly inserted into the activities is a testament to the exceptional talent of this gifted teacher. Highly recommended. A new title, Let's Create for Thanksgiving, is also available. Aud: K, E, P.Mark O'Brien's Magic Factory: Halloween, on the other hand, is a cynical, disjointed piece of fluff in which illusionist O'Brien tosses off a few bad jokes and flippantly runs through safety tips in between the many padded sections, which feature sequences from O'Brien's stage show. He also shares a couple of tricks which any kid that's been around the introduction-to-magic block already knows. A promising section on turning your abode into a haunted house isn't really long enough, and the suggestion to use dry ice is poorly handled (O'Brien cautions kids not to put their faces in the vapor, and then promptly does so himself). Finally, kids are encouraged to write to Mark for information about a special Halloween kit which, unless I'm entirely missing the point here, is surely not free. Not recommended. Aud: J, H, P. (R. Pitman)