About this item
In the fifth book in the New York Timesbest-selling chapter book series about the childhood of Americas favorite housekeeper, Amelia Bedelia takes to the field, the yoga mat, and the track, with hilarious results. Includes a guide to the idioms used in the book and features black-and-white art throughout. The Amelia Bedelia books have sold more than 35 million copies.Amelia Bedelias friends and classmates all have a particular sport that they love and are good at. Amelia Bedelia loves sports and games of all kinds, for different reasons. She has fun and she loves to dribble and dunk and run home, but she is not the fastest or strongest or quickest at anything. Amelia Bedelia would love to have a sport to call her ownand so when her class at school studies the sports of ancient Greece, she goes on a mission to find one! With Amelia Bedelia, anything can happenand it usually does.
About the Author
Herman Parish was in the fourth grade when his aunt, Peggy Parish, wrote the first book about Amelia Bedelia. The lovable, literal-minded housekeeper has been a member of his family ever since. Peggy Parish died in 1988. She would be proud and delighted to know that with Good Driving, Amelia Bedelia; Bravo, Amelia Bedelia!; Amelia Bedelia 4 Mayor and now Calling Doctor Amelia Bedelia, her nephew is carrying on -- for a new generation of readers -- the tradition she began years ago.
In His Own Words... "In true Amelia Bedelia fashion, I backed into writing these books about the literal-minded housekeeper who children laugh at and love. Amelia Bedelia was created by my aunt, Peggy Parish. Although she passed away in 1988, Peggy still received fan mail from children. They wondered when the next Amelia Bedelia book would be out. Then other children's authors wrote and volunteered to continue the series. I felt uneasy about Amelia Bedelia leaving our family. As I was in the fourth grade when she first appeared, I had literally grown up with her. So I decided to try to write a new Amelia Bedelia adventure. My two sisters and my family were very supportive and encouraged me. I'd had experience in writing advertisements. I reread the Amelia Bedelia stories to figure out what made them funny. I realized that everyday life overflows with idiomatic expressions, literalisms, and homophones. It's amazing more people don't get confused-besides Amelia Bedelia! My first book, Good Driving, Amelia Bedelia, took me a year to think about and one night to write. I had been collecting ideas, homonyms, and expressions. Whenever I heard them, I jotted them down: on napkins in restaurants, on my newspaper while riding the bus, and on agenda sheets in business meetings.
I stockpiled these fragments in a folder until one Sunday night, with my family asleep, I decided that it was now or never. I sat down around ten o'clock and began to write. I was so focused on the story that I finished as the sun came up on Monday morning. Naturally, the story needed revision, but the essence was captured in that all-night writing spree.
I am fortunate that my editor, Susan Hirschman, and the illustrator, Lynn Sweat, had worked with Peggy on many Amelia Bedelia books. That helped make the transition from Peggy's books to mine as seamless as possible.
I feel very lucky to be writing Amelia Bedelia books and continuing a family tradition. But the best reward was when a child wrote Peggy Parish a fan letter. It said that Good Driving, Amelia Bedelia is the best book she has written. To me, that's the highest compliment I could hope for."
