THE SPOOK BOOK

Easy but nifty ideas for turning a home Halloween party (or any other occasion) into a Vampire's Castle or a Hall of Horrors. The first setup has a Vampire with marshmallow fangs conducting a tour past a witch with her cauldron (red cellophane and a flashlight make the flames glow under the pot; crinkling the cellophane makes them crackle), a graveyard with floating helium-balloon heads floating above the tombstones, and a Tomb with a bubbling ""secret potion"" of baking soda, soap, and vinegar. The Hall of Horrors is appointed with more Devilish Decorations, and the Markses also offer some sound-effect secrets, recipes for ghoulish goodies, and suggestions for some mildly spooky activities: a haunted house story (to which each guest adds on), messages in invisible writing, a lights-out handling of a ghoul's eyes (olives), and so on. Ernst's pert pictures, though recognizably of a type, make the events look like fun and the props and costumes look effective.