Missing: What to Do if Your Child Disappears

How can you criticize a tape on child abduction created by the Klaas Foundation, featuring Polly Klaas' father offering advice on avoiding the nightmare his family endured? Ordinarily you'd think that a video which features distinguished guests from the FBI, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, law enforcement, and the media would be above reproach. However, for some reason the producers decided to use a gimmick so bizarre it's beyond tasteless. Instead of an informal panel or group discussion, "town hall" meeting or edited interviews, we see these experts in their fields standing at game-show style podiums, ringing a bell to answer questions about child abductions posed by the "host." You half expect someone to slip and say "sports for fifty, please." Yowza. In addition, some of the information here is questionable. The possibility of a child running away of his/her own accord is dismissed with the dire warning that kidnappings are "always" thought to be runaways, for example, and the tape recommends going straight to the media even when the police don't advise it--though the effect this might have on a perp (forcing him underground and the child out of sight--perhaps permanently) is not mentioned. While its heart is in the right place, this video's brain isn't. Public libraries should also be aware that the accompanying booklet contains an ink strip which viewers can use to fingerprint their own children. Expect this to be a mess in the book drop, if it is returned at all. Optional. Aud: P. (R. Reagan)