Educational screen & audio-visual guide (c1956-1971])

FILM EVALUATIONS by L. C. Larson and Carolyn Guss Happy Little Hamsters (Poiiufilm.i, Orchard Lake, Michigan) 13l'-> minutes, 16mm, sound, color or black and white, 1959. $135 and $75. Teacher's auide available. Description Happy Little Hamsters is the amusing but warmhearted story of Naomi— her courtship, motherhood, and the raising of her family of eight children. It also gives unusual close-up views of the day-by-day development of a hamster litter from birth to maturity. Naomi and Abdullah "fall in live" at first sight— or rather, first smell— and for a while they are happy. But like all adult hamsters after mating, they soon begin to have family spats. The quarrels get .so bad that pretty soon Abdullah, who has been relegated to the role of a "hamster-pecked" husband, is taken away. Several weeks later Naomi gives birth to eight healthy squirming babies each weighing about one-fifteenth of an ounce. Their skin is loose and transparent and their eyes and ears not fully formed. However, they develop rapidly, and in four days they begin to look like hamsters. As the babies start to walk, they become quite hard to manage and feed. They scramble about blindly and delight in after dinner romps at the end of which poor Naomi is ready to drop from sheer exhaustion. In two weeks the babies' eyes open, and since they have learned to eat solid foods by then, they eat everything in sight so that Naomi has to remind tliem that cedar chips are not for eating. Too, their fights, which they think are lots of fun, get on their mother's nerves. By the time the hamsters are three weeks old, they are tired of fighting as a form of exercise. They are more sure-footed and begin to show off in front of an appreciative group of children who love to watch their antics. The children have such fun with them that each child wants one for a pet. The hamsters are now ready to leave their mama and go out on their ■own, so they are placed in neat, new cages. As the last child hamster leaves, Naomi feels sad, but proud, too, be cause these happy little hamsters will make a lot of children happy. Appraisal Although designed specifically for children on the lower elementary level, the film, because of its unusual treatment, would appeal to people of all ages. The photography is e.xcellent and the narration, along with a clever sound track giving human voices to hamsters, provides just the right amount of hinnor to keep audience interest high. Happy Little Hamsters is authentic and most informative. It can be used to correlate with units on animal families and habits, value of animals to mankind, and care of pets. There is only one point which might have been more emphasized: the necessity of staying away from the young for a week after birth. Science and biology students would be interested in the day-by-day development of the litter from birth to maturity. They could also use the film as a springboard for discussion and study on individual similarities and differences in various animal families. The Humane Association might be interested in this film. too, as well as parents who know little about hamsters and hesitate to let their child have one for a pet. —Ilerminia M. Barcelona (Continued on next page) NAVA Booth M-82 IE N ?ElW PRODUCTIONS.Hc. VALHALLA. NEW YORK Brand New LABOR-MANAGEMENT RELATIONS A set of 4 black and white fihnstrips designed to aid the students in obtaining a clearer picture of labor and management and the problems each faces —stylized drawings used throughout. Jr.-Sr. H. S. J. Woedrow Soyrs, formerly of N. Y. S. School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University, now Field Director, N. Y. S. Council on Economic Education, Syracuse University is consultant on the series. 10.34 MANAGEMENT 10.35 LABOR 10.36 GOVERNMENT AND LABOR 10.37 COLLECTIVE BARGAINING I0.37X labor-Management Relations Set $13.30 FORSE TK^ ^^ DARKENING DRAPES AND SHADES for Classrooms and Auditoriums Forse Drapes and Shades meet every Inexpensive . . . Cuirinteed Isr requirement for light control and room 10 years . . . Used threuflnut darkening. Choice of decorative colors. tlic United States since 1917. DETACH AND MAIL THIS COUPON fi ^/yYA/> MAMUFACrUMMO COMPANY 2347 Sullivan Ave. • St. Louis 7, Mo. Send free samples and literature. NAME NSTITUTION ADDRESS CITY ZONE STATE Edicatio.nal Screen and Audiovisual Guide — August, 1960 441