Author | Peggy Parish |
---|---|
Illustrator | Fritz Siebel |
Cover artist | Fritz Siebel |
Language | English |
Series | Amelia Bedelia |
Subject | Idioms, literal language |
Genre | Children's picture book, comedy |
Publisher | Harper & Row |
Publication date | 1963 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (hardcover) |
Pages | 32 unnumbered |
OCLC | 301683 |
LC Class | PZ7.P219 Am [1] |
Followed by | Thank You, Amelia Bedelia |
Amelia Bedelia is the first book in the popular Amelia Bedelia children's picture book series about a housekeeper who takes her instructions literally. [1] It was written by Peggy Parish, illustrated by Fritz Siebel, and published by Harper and Row in 1963. [2] The idea for the book came from a former housekeeper as well as Peggy's third-grade students at the Dalton School in Manhattan who tended to confuse vocabulary, often with comic results. [3] Over 35 million copies of books in the series have been sold. [2] 2013 marked the book's 50th anniversary and commemorated its popularity with the publication of a new line of Amelia Bedelia books. [4]
There are a few ideas about the inspiration for Amelia Bedelia. In an interview, Peggy Parish’s nephew, Herman Parish, mentioned that the inspiration for Amelia Bedelia was Peggy herself, as she often took things literally. Peggy also drew inspiration from the third graders she taught, observing how her students sometimes struggled to interpret instructions that could be misunderstood when taken at face value. Regarding why Peggy Parish chose to make Amelia Bedelia a housekeeper, Herman shared a story he learned from one of her cousins. Peggy often visited her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers, in Manning, South Carolina, where she played with her cousins and enjoyed Sunday dinners. The Rogers household included both a cook and a housekeeper, as well as a younger housekeeper whose primary job was to look after the children because she wasn’t skilled at housework. Peggy’s cousin recalled a memorable incident when this young housekeeper had to fill in for the older one. When Mrs. Rogers instructed her to “sweep around the room,” she took the instruction literally, sweeping only the edges and leaving the center untouched. [5] In a 2013 interview, Herman Parish recalls how his aunt created Amelia Bedelia's character because of the need to target children of a certain age when they are both interested in reading and able to use their imagination without restraint. [6] Herman Parish references this same idea in another interview about Amelia Bedelia, noting the importance of incorporating imagination and fun into books to engage children readers. [7]
Amelia Bedelia is hired as a maid for the wealthy Mr. and Mrs. Rogers. Mrs. Rogers gives Amelia Bedelia a list of chores to complete while the couple go out for the day. Despite meaning well, she cannot seem to do anything right because she misinterprets the Rogers' instructions – many of which are idioms. Amelia Bedelia proceeds to take all the instructions literally.
Amelia Bedelia's list of chores is copied below with her interpretations of each one: [1]
When the couple returns home, Mrs. Rogers is infuriated that the chores have not been done in the way they were instructed and Amelia Bedelia has wreaked havoc throughout their house. Mrs. Rogers is on the verge of firing Amelia Bedelia when Mr. Rogers puts a bite of Amelia Bedelia's lemon meringue pie into his wife's mouth. Mrs. Rogers finds it so delicious that she forgives Amelia Bedelia and decides to continue to employ her and vows to write more explicit instructions in the future. [1]
Teaching guides incorporate Amelia Bedelia books into lessons on language – especially idioms – and reading comprehension. [8] In Carol Wolchok's book The Reading Teacher, she outlines a lesson that teaches idioms to third graders with examples from Amelia Bedelia. [9] School Media Activities Monthly published a lesson combining illustrations with instruction on figurative and literal language based on Amelia Bedelia. [10] Examples of idiomatic language from Amelia Bedelia were also used in a study examining metalinguistic ability and whether or not it affects a child's ability to determine meanings of words and/or phrases. [11]
In an article in The New Yorker, Sarah Blackwood offers a feminist interpretation, arguing that Amelia Bedelia's absurd interpretations are a sort of rebellion that reflect the 1960s feminist movement. [12] A 2021 study found that children's books can influence the ways in which children interpret gender stereotypes. [13] A total of 247 books were read by adults and then given a rating on a scale of 5 in regards to its gender bias – Amelia Bedelia was found to be one of the books with the highest feminine-bias due to its portrayal of gender. [13]
Over 35 million copies of books in the Amelia Bedelia series have been sold. [2] Holt Rinehart and Winston adapted this and several other books in the series for its I Can Read! line of beginning books.[ citation needed ] A 50th anniversary edition was published in 2013 which includes author's notes and archive photos.[ citation needed ] The first two chapter books in the new series written by Peggy's nephew, Herman Parish, were published to coincide with the original book's anniversary, focusing on the young Amelia Bedelia. [14]
An ABC News article commemorating the 50th anniversary of Amelia Bedelia's publication referred to Amelia as "possibly the most successful housemaid in the world". [15] The recent line of Amelia Bedelia books were published on its 50th anniversary after requests from children readers and even other authors. [15] HarperCollins credits Amelia Bedelia's popularity to the lead character's comic ways and the fact that readers of all ages have read Amelia Bedelia and continue reading it to this day. [16]
Anna Laetitia Barbauld was a prominent English poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, and author of children's literature. A prominent member of the Blue Stockings Society and a "woman of letters" who published in multiple genres, Barbauld had a successful writing career that spanned more than half a century.
Magic Tree House is an American children's series written by American author Mary Pope Osborne. The original American series was illustrated by Salvatore Murdocca until 2016, after which AG Ford took over. Other illustrators have been used for foreign-language editions.
Amelia Opie was an English author who published numerous novels in the Romantic period up to 1828. A Whig supporter and Bluestocking, Opie was also a leading abolitionist in Norwich, England. Hers was the first of 187,000 names presented to the British Parliament on a petition from women to stop slavery.
A Wrinkle in Time is a young adult science fantasy novel written by American author Madeleine L'Engle. First published in 1962, the book won the Newbery Medal, the Sequoyah Book Award and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and was runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. The main characters – Meg Murry, Charles Wallace Murry, and Calvin O'Keefe – embark on a journey through space and time, from galaxy to galaxy, as they endeavor to rescue the Murrys' father and fight The Black Thing that has intruded into several worlds.
The Children's Hour is a 1934 American play by Lillian Hellman. It is a drama set in an all-girls boarding school run by two women, Karen Wright and Martha Dobie. An angry student, Mary Tilford, runs away from the school and, to avoid being sent back, tells her grandmother that the two headmistresses are having a lesbian affair. The accusation proceeds to destroy the women's careers, relationships, and lives.
My Ántonia is a novel published in 1918 by American writer Willa Cather, which is considered one of her best works.
Amelia Bedelia is the protagonist and title character of a series of American children's books that were written by Peggy Parish from 1963 until her death in 1988, and by her nephew, Herman, beginning in 1995 and ending in 2022. They have been illustrated by Wallace Tripp, Fritz Siebel, and the two current illustrators, Lynn Sweat and Lynne Avril. In 1992 HarperCollins republished the three original stories with illustrations by Fritz's daughter, Barbara Siebel Thomas.
Margaret Cecile "Peggy" Parish was an American writer known best for the children's book series and fictional character Amelia Bedelia. Parish was born in Manning, South Carolina, attended the University of South Carolina, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. She worked as a teacher in Oklahoma, Kentucky, and in New York. She taught at the Dalton School in Manhattan for 15 years and published her first children's book while teaching third grade there. She authored over 30 books, which had sold 7 million copies at the time of her death.
Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr was a British novelist and teacher. Many of the plots of her stories are laid in Scotland and England. The scenes are from her girlhood recollection of surroundings. Her works include, Jan Vedder's Wife, A Border Shepherdess, Feet of Clay, Friend Olivia, The Bow of Orange Ribbon, Remember the Alamo, She Loved a Sailor, A Daughter of Fife, The Squire of Sanddal Side, Paul and Christina, Master of His Fate, The Household of McNeil, The Last of the Macallisters, Between Two Loves, A Sister to Esau, A Rose of a Hundred Leaves, A Singer from the Sea, The Beads of Tasmer, The Hallam Succession, The Lone House, Christopher and Other Stories, The Lost Silver of Briffault.
Sarah Trimmer was an English writer and critic of 18th-century British children's literature, as well as an educational reformer. Her periodical, The Guardian of Education, helped to define the emerging genre by seriously reviewing children's literature for the first time; it also provided the first history of children's literature, establishing a canon of the early landmarks of the genre that scholars still use today. Trimmer's most popular children's book, Fabulous Histories, inspired numerous children's animal stories and remained in print for over a century.
Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded is an epistolary novel first published in 1740 by the English writer Samuel Richardson. Considered one of the first true English novels, it serves as Richardson's version of conduct literature about marriage.
Wallace Whitney Tripp was an American illustrator, anthologist and author. He was known for creating anthropomorphic animal characters of emotional complexity and for his great visual and verbal humor. He was one of several illustrators of the Amelia Bedelia series of children's stories. He has illustrated over 40 books, including Marguerite, Go Wash Your Feet (1985), Wallace Tripp's Wurst Seller (1981), Casey at the Bat (1978) and A Great Big Ugly Man Came Up and Tied His Horse to Me (1973). Tripp also drew many greeting cards for the Pawprints line.
Amelia Elizabeth Hobley, popularly dubbed the Ogress of Reading, was an English serial killer who murdered infants in her care over a thirty-year period during the Victorian era.
Lessons for Children is a series of four age-adapted reading primers written by the prominent 18th-century British poet and essayist Anna Laetitia Barbauld. Published in 1778 and 1779, the books initiated a revolution in children's literature in the Anglo-American world. For the first time, the needs of the child reader were seriously considered: the typographically simple texts progress in difficulty as the child learns. In perhaps the first demonstration of experiential pedagogy in Anglo-American children's literature, Barbauld's books use a conversational style, which depicts a mother and her son discussing the natural world. Based on the educational theories of John Locke, Barbauld's books emphasise learning through the senses.
Herman S. Parish III was an American children's writer, the author of Amelia Bedelia children's books and the nephew of the series creator Peggy Parish.
Scream, Pretty Peggy is a 1973 American made-for-television horror film directed by Gordon Hessler and starring Bette Davis, Ted Bessell, and Sian Barbara Allen. Its plot follows a young college student who is given a job by a sculptor housekeeping at a mysterious mansion where his sister and their elderly mother reside. It was broadcast as the ABC Suspense Movie on November 24, 1973.
I Can Read! is a line of beginning reading books published by HarperCollins. The series is rated by level and is widely used to teach children to read English. The first book in the series was Else Holmelund Minarik's Little Bear, published in 1957, and subsequent notable titles have included Amelia Bedelia and Frog and Toad.
Flying Too High is a crime novel by Australian author Kerry Greenwood, and was published in 1990 by Penguin Books. It is the second novel by Kerry Greenwood that features the fictional detective Miss Phryne Fisher.
Peggy Converse born "Velma Randall", was an American stage, film, and television actress whose lengthy career spanned seven decades.