This may be an ingenious way to give a picture of child life in New Amsterdam of Peter Stuyvesant's days, but I confess that it does not seem to me a wholly successful blend of realism and fantasy. Two youngsters, eight and ten, set off by subway to see the Aquarium and the Battery -- and find themselves translated back to New Amsterdam, in the shoes -- literally -- of two Dutch children. Their misadventures might have caused a deal of speculation among their hosts.