CEREAL BOXES & PRIZES: 1960s

CEREAL BOXES & PRIZES: 1960s Scott Bruce (Flake World, $29.95) Golly, kids, cereal used to be fun, before it was about oat bran and fiber. Head of a weird little cult with an apparent surplus of basement space, the author has priced and poured a decade's worth of breakfast ''collectibles'' -- that is, whatever made you reach for the General Mills sugar-sparkled Twinkles instead of the Post Sugar Sparkled Rice Krinkles -- into these pages. It's impressive but a bit dry, even for someone (me) who considers a Rice Krispies treat the height of gastronomic bliss. And as to why a beat-up box of 1967 Cap'n Crunch commands $25 more than a mint-condition '63 Tony Tiger toy: Ah, sweet, frosted mini-mysteries of life... C+ -- Alexandra Jacobs