Amelia Bedelia
Amelia Bedelia is the protagonist and title character of a series of American children's books written by Peggy Parish until her death in 1988, and by her nephew, Herman Parish, beginning in 1995. 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: Amelia Bedelia, Amelia Bedelia and the Surprise Shower, and Thank You, Amelia Bedelia with illustrations by Barbara Siebel Thomas, daughter of the original illustrator Fritz Siebel.
There is a statue of Amelia Bedelia in Manning, South Carolina, the hometown of Peggy Parish.
Many of the books are published as part of the I Can Read! series, levels 1 and 2.
Premise
The stories involve Amelia Bedelia repeatedly misunderstanding various commands of her employer by always taking figures of speech and various terminology literally, causing her to perform incorrect actions with a comical effect. For example, a request to "put out the lights" to her, means to literally put the lights outside. Part of her insight into literalism is that she comes from a family who takes everything literally: their method of ridding their house of dust is to "undust the furniture." However, she almost always manages to win everyone over at the end by baking a delicious pie, cake, or other dessert. Much of her employment is as a maid for a wealthy couple known as the Rogers, who are astute enough to realize her literalism and write their requests as "undust the furniture" and "put the wet towels in the laundry and replace them with clean dry ones," as opposed to simply "change the towels."Authorship change
Following Parish's death, children would send in fan letters asking about the continuation of the book series. Herman Parish, her nephew, felt uncomfortable to let her work be continued by someone not in the family. He then undertook authorship in 1995 with the full support of his family.In 2009, Herman Parish began writing books about Amelia Bedelia's own childhood experiences, starting with Amelia Bedelia's First Day of School.
List of books
| Author | Adult Amelia Cont. | Amelia's Childhood Series |
| Herman Parish |
|
Adaptations
Several theatre productions have been produced based on the series, including by the Serendipity Theatre Company in West Hollywood, California in 1994, the Omaha Theater for Young People in 2001, the San Diego Junior Theatre in 2002, the SCERA Theatre in Orem, Utah in 2008, and the Art Centre Theatre in Plano, Texas in 2011.Universal Studios and Playtone partners Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman reportedly bought the rights to produce a live-action feature film adaptation of Amelia Bedelia in 2005, but the project never materialized.