KNITWITS

Taylor's comedies Agnes the Sheep (1991) and this latest have in common not only references to wool culture, but a zany point-of- view and some fairly unravelled scenes of domestic life in New Zealand. Charles is alarmed by the news of his mother's pregnancy, but makes a bet with precocious next-door neighbor Alice Pepper that he will knit a sweater for the little nipper by the time it is born. At stake: either he will pay her five dollars a week for the rest of her life, or she will bequeath to him all her notorious collections, including her assembly of skulls. Charles takes knitting lessons from a curmugeonly teacher, the very one to have unjustly suspended him from the hockey team for using bad language (Alice is the guilty party). He is able to keep his project a secret from nearly everyone; his two best chums ``catch'' him at it and sit down to revel in their own feats of knitting prowess. This is but one of many unexpected twists that will needle the funny bones of most middle graders; regular references to Charles's mother's expanding ``boobs'' will nail down the peculiar interests of the rest. With unpredictably comical depictions that never lapse into caricature, and descriptions of the sweater's progress that are a study in gleeful boyish pride, this blithe look at an expectant family has no dropped stitches. (Fiction. 8-12)