Parish, Peggy, and Lynn Sweat. Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1977.
Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia is a mixture of fiction and fantasy. It is fiction because the events in the story, though some of them are very far-fetched, could possibly happen. I consider this work to be in the category of fantasy because when I read this book, this is how I imagined every student wanted their classroom to function. This book is about a woman who is asked to relay a message to the principal of the school but somehow gets the job of substitute teaching for the class. This is a problem because the main character, Amelia Bedelia, takes everything literally and always seems to mess up what others see as simple tasks. The illustrator, Lynn Sweat, uses cartoon art in order to add to the comical mishaps of Amelia Bedelia in this book. The pictures depict the literal meanings of Amelia Bedelia’s actions throughout the book. The text, along with the pictures in this book, effectively relay the message that Amelia Bedelia takes everything literally. I feel that this is socially relevant because children are always told to follow directions, and sometimes the directions are not as explicit as they could be for young minds to comprehend. This book makes it a comical situation instead of what some children may be used to when they make mistakes.
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I really enjoyed the Amelia Bedelia Books when I was growing up. They show practical everyday activities in a humorous way. We were talking about these books in one of my class and someone mentioned that they would be the worst books for those learning a second language. This is completely true because it would just throw off many children's perceptions of words and their meanings. While I really enjoy these books, I feel that in today's world, with many people from different cultures, that they cannot be used as widely as before.
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