CONCOCTIONS

A straightforward presentation of 38 recipes for variously useful concoctions--from sidewalk chalk (made with eggshells), ""fake plastic"" (out of gelatin), and a soap bubble mix to such common craft materials as inks, pastes, fingerpaint, dyes, and bread dough. The directions are brief and to the point, but though the absence of padding can only be commended we wish the authors had made more of their book-- perhaps adding abbreviated versions of the scientific explanations Vicki Cobb provides. Some readers, at least, might want to know why peanut butter works as a chrome polish or even why, despite all the prominent warnings against eating the concoctions, the authors call for a flavor extract in their liquid detergent ""copy solution"" (used for making prints from comics). And, on second thought, some of the recipes--for paper recycled in a blender or an eraser that gets moldy in a few days--could be considered padding themselves. Accessory.