Agnes the Sheep

In this story set in New Zealand, a school project pairs goody-goody Belinda and roughneck Joe in a research project about the elderly. Mrs. Carpenter, however, is not at all what their teacher had in mind--she's no sweet old lady reminiscing about frontier times, but a spitfire with a wickedly misbehaving sheep named Agnes. Joe and Belinda become friends with Mrs. Carpenter and are entrusted with Agnes when the woman passes away. With a liberal sprinkling of tongue-in-cheek humor, Taylor ( Paradise Lane ) transforms a fairly thin story into an appealing read that calls to mind the lighter moments of his compatriot Margaret Mahy. His observations about the human condition may pass over the heads of incautious readers, but the slapstick action and foreign flavor should make his novel a favorite with the middle-grade crowd. Ages 10-up. (Mar.)