Amelia Bedelia 4 Mayor

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 Beclelia 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."

Grade 1-3 Amelia Bedelia always does exactly what people tell her to do, so when her employer says he wishes she would run for the mayor's office, she dashes down to city hall. Although Amelia never meant to do anything more than literally run to the office, an encounter with the mayor and a reporter soon has her in the thick of a political campaign. Such literal mindedness is what gives Amelia her charm, and there are plenty of instances of humorous confusion in this latest installment in the series. If not quite to the level of the original titles written by Peggy Parish, the author's nephew does a satisfactory job of carrying on the traditions of wordplay and wacky complications that have made Amelia Bedelia such a beloved character. Readers will recognize Sweat's watercolor and black-pen illustrations from the earlier books. Most libraries should find this title to be a popular selection. Melissa Hudak, Northern Illinois Medical Center, McHenry, IL
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