CINNAMON AND NUTMEG

When she's rejected by her father after the birth of a new son and teased by the new, citified teacher Jenny Wren, Tessa's credentials as a problem heroine are well established. But these agonies soon give way to the difficulties of caring for two hidden orphans, the wild kid Nutmeg and the calf Cinnamon, and later of tracking down the mysterious reasons why the purebred calf remains unclaimed. Tessa is isolated from everyone except her secret pets, but someone -- like sophisticated cousin Jan on a weekdong visit, or sympathetic Aunt Helen -- always shows up conveniently to intercede with the grownups. The biggest mystery for readers may be in figuring out where all this is happening (New Zealand), and despite the inclusion of two individual animal babies, the story lacks seasoning.