TAFFY'S FOAL

Second year readers may find this a bit beyond them, but third year readers will enjoy it. And a new horse story makes an always welcome addition. There's less novelty in this rather patterned story of Nancy, who lived with her grandmother on a Kentucky farm, and whose very being was bound up with her beloved Taffy -- than was evident in The Horse Called Pete. But the stepmother relationship, as Nancy has to go to Chicago to live when her father remarries, is a new element, and is well handled. Nancy makes her adjustment to a city school -- to the cramped apartment home -- but she can't recover from the loss of Taffy. So eventually a boarding place is found for Taffy, not too far away, and Nancy's life takes on a new significance. Taffy's death, when the foal is born, is handled with a minimum of emotion, and the foal -- and the assurance of holidays back on the farm- help Nancy to grow up, to accept a new sort of life.