Browsing the Beginning Chapter Books: Amelia Bedelia means business and Amelia Bedelia and Friends Beat the Clock by Herman Parish, illustrated by Lynne Avril

Genre: Humorous, realistic fiction

Protagonists: White, female

Reading level: 600s

Series: Twenty titles total, last published in 2022

Originally reviewed in April 2021

Review: Amelia Bedelia, originally conceived of by Peggy Parish and illustrated by Walter Tripp, was introduced in the early 60s. She was a kind of housemaid to a wealthy, middle-aged couple and appeared as a young woman with exaggerated black bonnet, black dress, and white apron. She was, and continues to be, popular with children for her wild humor, as she takes everything, including figures of speech, literally or else misunderstands. For example, when told to "put out the lights" she would unscrew all the light bulbs and put them outside. When making a sponge cake, she would cut up pieces of kitchen sponge into cake batter. Her employers, while initially angry or frustrated, would usually calm down upon tasting whatever delicious dessert she completed after she "finished" her chores. She was one of the first I Can Read characters and continues to be popular.

Through the years, her style, clothing, and colors changed as various illustrators gave her a new look. In 1995 Herman Parish, Peggy Parish's nephew, took over the character and, in addition to writing continuations in the same vein as the original, introduced Amelia Bedelia as a child in picture books and easy readers. So we eventually come to 2013 and Amelia Bedelia in chapter book format. At some point, possibly 2019? the chapter books branched off into "Amelia Bedelia & Friends."

In Amelia Bedelia means business, Amelia Bedelia longs for a shiny new bike and tries a number of business ventures to earn enough for one. However, due to a variety of circumstances, from her misunderstanding of words and phrases to general bad luck, she keeps making people angry or losing all the money she makes. Finally, with the help of some friends and her own can-do spirit, she successfully earns her new bike and makes a new friend as well. The child version of Amelia Bedelia has many things in common with the adult, including her baking skill (she saves the day with lemon tarts and starts a baking business that will remain in the background throughout all the books).

In Amelia Bedelia & Friends Beat the Clock, Amelia and a group of friends, includes two POC, go through an exciting time at school as they plan their school's 100th birthday celebration. There are many minor disasters as well as the mystery of what's in the school's time capsule - and where it was buried. Amelia's lemon tarts make another appearance, as does her confusion over words and her general friendliness.

Lynn's cheerful black and white illustrations are humorous and keep the stories moving from one small scene to the next. There are typos in the books, which is frustrating as they're already challenging to read due to the frequent wordplay. As an adult, I want to get Amelia Bedelia evaluated and to a therapist, find out why her parents have not done so and are still surprised when she misunderstands things, and get her teachers on board with her IEP. What's obviously an imaginary adult character just has never worked for me as a child character - it makes me think Amelia is on the spectrum or has some kind of learning disability that makes her struggle with comprehension and emotional nuance and none of the adults around her are giving her any help - worse, they always seems surprised when it happens or irritated, like this exact same thing hasn't happened for the last 20 books. Ahem. Obviously these annoy me.

I originally looked at Amelia Bedelia means business back when there was a trend towards popular characters - Fancy Nancy, Amelia Bedelia, Here's Hank, etc. going up from early reader/picture books or down from chapter books. Fast forward a few years (ok, seven to be precise) and some of my most voracious young readers put in requests for the Amelia Bedelia chapter books. They love them. Other kids ask for them. So, I added them to our series section around 2020. They aren't flying off the shelves, not surprising for an older series, but they do circulate steadily. In other words, this is how we buy things for the library that we don't like or even think are particularly noteworthy or even interesting.

Verdict: These are very much a matter of individual appeal. My readers who like them have a particular interest in slice-of-life type easy stories with mild humor. They are generally not fans of fantasy and really don't like anything remotely scary. While I would first purchase more diverse series along these lines - Farah Rocks, Nina Soni, Astrid & Apollo, etc. ultimately I get what my patrons want and enough of them want Amelia Bedelia chapter books that that's what we have. I prefer the originals though.

Revisited: I didn't end up owning every single title, but they still circulate fairly steadily. Not enough to bother filling in the gaps, but enough to keep the series on the shelf.

Amelia Bedelia means business
ISBN: 9780062094964; Originally published 2013 by Greenwillow; Purchased for the library

Amelia Bedelia & Friends beat the clock

ISBN: 9780062935175; Published 2019 by Greenwillow; Purchased for the library