Bravo, Amelia Bedelia!

Herman Parish was in the fourth grade when his aunt, Peggy Parish, wrote the first book about Amelia Bedelia. The lovable, literal-minded housekeeper has been a member of his family ever since. Peggy Parish died in 1988. She would be proud and delighted to know that with Good Driving, Amelia Bedelia; Bravo, Amelia Bedelia!; and now Amelia Bedelia 4 Mayor her nephew is carrying on -- for a new generation of readers -- the tradition she began years ago. In His Own Words...

"In true Amelia Bedelia fashion, I backed into writing these books about the literal-minded housekeeper who children laugh at and love.

"Amelia Bedelia was created by my aunt, Peggy Parish. Although she passed away in 1988, Peggy still received fan mail from children. They wondered when the next Amelia Bedelia book would be out. Then other children's authors wrote and volunteered to continue the series.

"I felt uneasy about Amelia Beclelia leaving our family. As I was in the fourth grade when she first appeared, I had literally grown up with her. So I decided to try to write a new Amelia Bedelia adventure. My two sisters and my family were very supportive and encouraged me.

"I'd had experience in writing advertisements. I reread the Amelia Bedelia stories to figure out what made them funny. I realized that everyday life overflows with idiomatic expressions, literalisms, and homophones. It's amazing more people don't get confused-besides Amelia Bedelia!

"My first book, Good Driving, Amelia Bedelia, took me a year to think about and one night to write. I had been collecting ideas, homonyms, and expressions. Whenever I heard them, I jotted them down: on napkins in restaurants, on my newspaper while riding the bus, and on agenda sheets in business meetings.

"I stockpiled these fragments in a folder until one Sunday night, with my family asleep, I decided that it was now or never. I sat down around ten o'clock and began to write. I was so focused on the story that I finished as the sun came up on Monday morning. Naturally, the story needed revision, but the essence was captured in that all-night writing spree.

"I am fortunate that my editor, Susan Hirschman, and the illustrator, Lynn Sweat, had worked with Peggy on many Amelia Bedelia books. That helped make the transition from Peggy's books to mine as seamless as possible.

"I feel very lucky to be writing Amelia Bedelia books and continuing a family tradition. But the best reward was when a child wrote Peggy Parish a fan letter. It said that Good Driving, Amelia Bedelia is the best book she has written. To me, that's the highest compliment I could hope for."

Grade 1-3?Herman Parish, the nephew of Peggy Parish, admirably carries the torch in the continuation of this well-loved series. When Mrs. Rogers asks her very literal maid to go to the train station to pick up the conductor for the school concert, Amelia Bedelia returns with the train conductor. And so begins another story of misunderstandings, this time set within the musical world of a school concert. When a bee is busily buzzing around Amelia Bedelia, she flattens it with a pair of cymbals, disrupting the orchestra and further provoking the already irate conductor. "Would you call that B-flat?" he asks. "Absolutely," says Amelia Bedelia. "A bee couldn't get any flatter." Sweat's clear cartoon illustrations work well with the text and reflect today's multicultural awareness with the inclusion of various ethnic groups. Amelia Bedelia devotees will not be disappointed by her latest wacky adventure.?Amelia Kalin, Valley Cottage Library, NY
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.