Amelia Bedelia
Amelia Bedelia
Written by Peggy Parish
Illustrated by Fritz Siebel
New York, Harper & Row, 1963
5" x 7"
Kerlan Collection, Children's Literature Research Collections
University of Minnesota Libraries
One of the first of the "early readers" after The Cat in the Hat (1957) was Amelia Bedelia. This housekeeper's misunderstanding of instructions caused her to draw pictures of drapes rather than close them and dress a chicken in a cunning outfit rather than prepare it for roasting. We readers might consider the eponymous character ignorant because of her errors. Instead let us consider that she may be an English language learner, for whom homonyms and homophones can be especially challenging.