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Amelia Bedelia
Fictional character From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Amelia Bedelia is 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, from 1995 to 2022. The stories follow Amelia Bedelia, a maid who repeatedly misunderstands various commands of her employer by taking figures of speech and various terminology literally, causing her to perform incorrect actions with a comical effect. They have been illustrated by Wallace Tripp, Fritz Siebel, Lynn Sweat, Lynne Avril, and Barbara Siebel Thomas.
As of 2013, the book series had sold over 35 million copies, plus 11 million more copies through a licensing deal through Scholastic.[1]
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Description
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Amelia Bedelia is a series of American children's books beginning with Amelia Bedelia in 1963. They were written by Peggy Parish until her death in 1988. Herman Parish, Peggy's nephew, contributed new stories to the series from 1995 to 2022. Many of the books are published as part of the I Can Read! series, levels 1 and 2.[2]
Premise
The stories follow Amelia Bedelia, a maid who repeatedly misunderstands various commands of her employer by taking figures of speech and various terminology literally, with comical results. For example, she interprets a request to "put the lights out" as a request to physically put the light bulbs outside. Other examples include "tag a player out" when playing baseball resulting in her placing an actual tag on the player and then picking up the person to ask how far out they should be.
Part of the reason given for this behavior is that she comes from a family who takes everything literally: she works primarily as a maid for a wealthy couple known as the Rogers, who are astute enough to realize her literalism and write their requests as "un-dust the furniture" and "put the wet towels in the laundry and replace them with clean dry ones", as opposed to simply "change the towels".
However, she almost always manages to win everyone over at the end with her excellent cooking, particularly desserts.
Illustrations
The books have been illustrated by Wallace Tripp, Fritz Siebel, Lynn Sweat and Lynne Avril. In 1992 HarperCollins republished the three original stories (Amelia Bedelia; Thank You, Amelia Bedelia; and Amelia Bedelia and the Surprise Shower) with illustrations by Fritz Siebel's daughter, Barbara Siebel Thomas.
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Characters
- Amelia Bedelia: A maid who takes her orders too literally
- Mrs. Rogers: An employer who often gets angry at Amelia Bedelia's mistakes
- Mr. Rogers: The husband of Mrs. Rogers
Authorship change
Following Parish's death, her nephew, the late Herman Parish, took over the writing of the book series in 1995.[3] In 2009, Herman Parish began writing books about Amelia Bedelia's own childhood experiences, starting with Amelia Bedelia's First Day of School, illustrated by Lynne Avril.
List of books
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Adaptations
Several theatre productions have been produced based on the series, including by the Serendipity Theatre Company in West Hollywood, California, in 1994,[4] the Omaha Theater for Young People in 2001;[5] the San Diego Junior Theatre in 2002;[6] the SCERA Theatre in Orem, Utah, in 2008;[7] and the Art Centre Theatre in Plano, Texas, in 2011.[8]
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.[9]
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Popular culture
- There is a statue of Amelia Bedelia, the protagonist and title character of the series, in Peggy Parish's hometown of Manning, South Carolina.[10]
- In 2021, an episode of This American Life featured a segment based on the character, reimagining her as working from home.[11]
See also
- Till Eulenspiegel, a German folk hero with a similar penchant for interpreting figurative language literally.
- Juan Bobo
- Mr. Logic, a character who takes everything people say to him literally from the British adult comic book Viz.
References
External links
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