Customer Reviews

Amelia Bedelia Collection (I Can Read Book 2)

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Amelia Bedelia, the extremely literal housekeeper who is adored by children all over the world turns 40 this year. Created in 1963 by Peggy Parish, Amelia Bedelia has amused and entertained children of all ages ever since. Amelia is a very literal housekeeper, and if not for her exceptional skill in the kitchen baking goodies, it is hard to think that she would be employed at all! Her literalness is the root of many adventures and the cause of great hi-jinx and amusement.

To celebrate this anniversary, HarperTrophy, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, has put together a boxed collection of three of the most popular Amelia Bedelia titles. This confused housekeeper is one of the best loved literary children's characters of all time, and with such high sales and great human appeal, she might just be the most popular..

This set begins with the very first Amelia Bedelia book ever written, Amelia Bedelia. The illustrator for this title was Fritz Siebel, and he did an incredible job with it! Peggy introduces her amusing housekeeper to the world as Amelia begins a new job, housekeeper for the Rogers'. A list of chores is taken quite literally by Amelia, and we accompany her while she goes about her day - putting out the lights, dusting the furniture, drawing the curtains when the sun shines through the windows, and making a special treat for her new employers: a luscious lemon meringue pie.

Play Ball, Amelia Bedelia, has the housekeeper helping out some of the local kids when their team comes up short for the baseball game. Amelia is so kind-hearted that even though she knows nothing at all about the game, she offers to help the team and play with them. Baseball will never be the same again! Providing the illustrations for this title is Wallace Tripp, and his eye for detail and use of vibrant colours brings the ball field to life.

Third and final in the set is one that had me laughing so hard it hurt - Amelia Bedelia and the Surprise Shower. Mrs. Rogers and her lady's sewing circle are giving one of their members a surprise wedding shower, and Amelia Bedelia's literal mindedness turns the rather sedately planned event into a complete and utter laugh-fest. The fun doubles when Amelia's cousin, Alcolu, lends a hand. Barbara Siebel Thomas provides the artwork for this title, and the event is captured beautifully!

This set is also a part of the I Can Read Book titles, and falls into the 2nd level (reading with help). Share this delightful collection with a young one in your life, and open up the world of literary humour for them. Share the fun that Amelia Bedelia brings along with her, you won't be disappointed!

Reveiw Originally Posted at LinearReflections.com

The Amelia Bedelia 40th Anniversary Collection is a perfect introduction to the one and only Amelia Bedelia. She is a wonderful source of amusement to my children (and me) when her literal interpretations of words causes happy chaos to the world around her. The stories and illustrations are a perfect match. All the Amelia Bedelia books are a joy to read!

Merry mayhem begins in the first story that introduces Amelia as she begins work as the housekeeper for the unsuspecting Mr. and Mrs. Rogers! Amelia proves, thanks to her delicious lemon meringue pie, it is indeed true, that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach!

Our son found the 'Play Ball' baseball story hilarious! Once again Amelia interprets the rules of the game in her own unique convoluted way. On the field and off there is no one like her.

The third story, was our daughter's favorite. It has Amelia helping Mrs. Rogers with a Surprise Bridal Shower that turns out like no other! The results of which are guaranteed to make you laugh! Enjoy!

Amelia Bedelia is the cute story of a clumsy maid that forgets, and doesn't know the meaning of our everyday sayings like draw the drapes. It will make children laugh, even adults. It's a cute story of a silly lady that makes you want to keep reading, and makes you love Amelia!

You absolutely can not go wrong with any of the Amelia Bedelia books.
The main character of these books is obviously Amelia. She is a maid in home that makes many mistakes. ALL of the mistakes she makes are based on errors in understanding language.

For example, the lady of the home might tell Amelia to plant the bulbs, meaning flower bulbs. And instead Amelia will plant light bulbs. When she plays baseball with the local boys and they tell her to run home, she does- home to her house.

These oddball mistakes provide a good avenue for discussions of language and in our case we talked about what it might be like to learn a second language with all of the homophones that we use in English. We have used this series of books to talk about context clues as well.

She is adorable, fun, and all of the books are easy to read.

Enjoy. Well worth the money.

My granddaughter is in Kdg. and I wanted to share some books with her that would make her laugh as well as learn. As a retired elementary school teacher I know how important it is to start children early with the reading process.

The books arrived earlier than I an anticipated and they are in excellent condition.

Thanks for the good and prompt service.

I remember spending hours reading these silly books as a got older. I think its funny how my sister who also read these books is just like the main character. As someone who works with kids, im happy to see them smile and giggle as they read these books and learn how much fun reading can be.

I grew up loving Amelia Bedelia and was thrilled when I found these for my husband's nieces! Great buy!

I purchased these books and gave them to a friend with a little girl for her to enjoy. Amelia Bedelia is one of those classics I think every child should read. Funny and light-hearted and something every child will love.

Reason for Reading: Ds read aloud to me as his reader.

Well, everybody knows the antics of Amelia Bedelia, the maid who takes everything literally. This is the first book written about the famous maid, that made her such a beloved literary character. My son loved the book, thought it was just absolutely hilarious and couldn't believe how "stupid" she was. "Stupid" is a word we are not allowed to say in our house so I asked for another word to describe Amelia and he came up with "very dumb". {sigh} We later agreed upon "very silly". I wasn't sure he'd like this so much since he's autistic and does take things literally himself, to a point. Truthfully, I never liked Amelia Bedelia as a kid because I just did not get it at all. I found it entirely confusing and I guess that was my Asperger's coming out. Being an extremely literal person, I did not see the joke. (I don't get many jokes) Besides I had no idea what "trim the fat" "dress the turkey" or "draw the drapes", for example, meant in the first place! (I do get it now.) Surprisingly, my son knew what they really meant for her to do in every situation, except "trim the fat"!

For some reason, I have no idea why, while reading this I did wonder if the illustrations were the originals and they are. Fritz Siebel is the original illustrator. However after examining the copyright page, I see that his estate allowed the illustrations to be "revised" in 1992. I'm wondering just exactly what was revised for as they stand now there are two things that stand out as having been left "as is" when one knows the illustrations have been tampered with. On the first page Mr. Rogers has pipe in mouth and in all the last pages Mrs. Rogers is wearing a real fox stole, complete with head! I'll be looking around to replace my copy with an earlier hardcover "I Can Read" book edition (as I collect those) to see for myself just how the illustrations have been "revised". I can't see it being much since they left those two very un-PC illustrations alone.

Amelia Bedelia never goe out of style! Bought this for 6 year old and she loved it just as much as my kids did!