The "Everything" Pumpkin Kit: The Halloween Jack-o'-Lantern by Carlos deVito

Carlo de Vito's "kit" book, The Halloween Jack-O-Lantern: Everything You Need to Help You and Your Family Enjoy the Scariest Month of the Year! doesn't come with a big fat orange pumpkin to carve, but it has just about everything else you need to light your Halloween night.

De Vito's compact little kit includes a book which explains the origin of the jack-o-lantern. He includes versions of the tales of the "will o' the wisp" and of "Wicked John" or "Jack," who was such a mean-hearted trickster that he couldn't get into Heaven or the Devil's domain and was forced to wander with his lantern in the darkness through eternity. De Vito explains how the American pumpkin came to replace the European turnip and other vegetables as the preferred lantern for Halloween.

Also included in the book are a list of "famous pumpkin movies" from Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin to Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, classic pumpkin poems, and a scary tale by Nathaniel Hawthorn. Sure to be used are the recipes for yummy-sounding pumpkin pies, pumpkin cookies, roasted pumpkin seeds and even pumpkin chili. The basics of pumpkin carving are also laid out, step by step, with appropriate tools, clean-up advice, and safety instructions included.

The CD included in the kit features a flickering, candle-lit, and handsomely carved jack-o-lantern to display on your television screen during your Halloween party (a la the famous Yule log), as well as Halloween sound effects, including the usual screams and howls and spooky organ music.

As a bonus the kit contains stencils of various facial features for your own homemade jack-o-lantern, so that you can choose eyebrows, smiles or frowns, noses, ears, and other facial features to individualize your creation and amaze and delight your trick or treaters.