Amelia Bedelia Is for the Birds

by Herman Parish, Lynne Avril (Illustrator)

Learn to read with young Amelia Bedelia! Amelia Bedelia has been loved by readers for more than fifty years, and it turns out that her childhood is full of silly mix-ups, too! When a pair of robins begins building a nest in Amelia Bedelia's swing set, she is torn between wanting to clear it off so that she can continue to slide down her slide, and giving up that fun so she can watch the birds raising their babies. She sides with the birds, and observing them informs her about her own family. Amelia Bedelia Is for the Birds is a Level One I Can Read book, which means it's perfect for children learning to sound out words and sentences.  

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books, Birds, Animals, Fiction

32 pages, Hardcover

First published April 21, 2015

About the author

Herman Parish (born 1953) is the author of Amelia Bedelia children's book series, nephew of original author, Peggy Parish. Having grown up with his aunt’s tales of Amelia’s humorous misadventures, Herman decided to carry on the legacy after his aunt’s death in 1988. He did not wish to entrust the future of the series into the hands of a children’s author outside of the family. Since Peggy had the summers off from teaching, she was able to stay with the Parish family for extended periods of time, allowing Herman and Peggy to develop a close relationship. More importantly, this gave Herman a chance to keenly observe Peggy during her writing processes, gaining great insight to the road ahead of him. To carry on the essence of the series, Herman thoroughly examined his aunt’s work and did his best to capture what exactly made the character of Amelia Bedelia such a hit. Having editor Susan Hirschman and illustrator Lynn Sweat in common with his aunt helped to make the transition. He has added thirteen more books to the series. Herman is a resident of Princeton, New Jersey, and travels to libraries and schools across the United States, speaking and inspiring young children. The importance of revising and editing is often stressed during these dynamic lectures. He has presented to students in more than 22 states.

-Wikipedia

***The photo at left is of Herman with his aunt, Peggy Parish, in 1985.

Reviews

[Lorellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm taking a star off this otherwise adorable story about helping birds build a nest because it really doesn't make any sense to me that this girl is also Amelia Bedelia, especially having read the original just after this one. I do realize she is meant to be a youthful version, but they don't seem the same. Anyway, Tot really liked this one. She loved discussing the birds and their babies.

[Cosette]

Not the way I remember Amelia Bedelia.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute book that introduces the concept of a bird building a nest and having a "family," empathy for the birds (they built the nest on Amelia's slide), and learning about their life cycle first-hand. There are a few big words that a Beginning Level 1 Reader might need help with reading and understanding--fifty, routine, fluttering, wrecking, binoculars, amazing. I like that when they used the word "fifty" they illustrated it and used the numbers 48, 49, 50. Great way to learn the spelling of a word and understand that it's a number, and she's counting her swings. (Maybe encouraging a child to count that high while swinging themselves!)

[Rosa Cline · Rating 3 out of 5]

After Amelia Bedelia's schedule is interrupted by a couple of Robin's building their nest on her slide. She realizes they are doing that to have their eggs and babies. So although she doesn't like having to wait that long to use her slide she learns that she needs to leave the nest alone so the birds can grow.

[Amy the book-bat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember the Amelia Bedelia books from WAAAAAAY back... I was in second grade (almost 40 years ago?!?!?) I love the stories of the mixed up housekeeper. This story is apparently Amelia Bedelia as a child and her early antics. I never knew these books with Amelia Bedelia as a child even existed! This was a cute story, but it didn't give me the nostalgia I was looking for.

[Lila Lovebug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lila finished reading this on April 23

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amelia Bedelia watches. learns and helps as a family of Robins build their nest on her backyard slide.

[The Book Box]

Mom and I read this before bed the other night.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

H read it to me!

[Sukhasis Basu Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely!!

A feel good read with many life lessons!! My kid totally enjoyed it.Highly recommended for all the young readers who love reading.

[Kelly Chester · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute story, but this is not the Amelia Bedelia I know from my childhood.

[Elizabeth Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

as a kid i would read Amelia Bedelia but i could have swore that she was a lot older??! i am guessing this is a totally different series?? need to investigate that. great illustrations. well done. i did enjoy it!

[Joey Gremillion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Duh, I will always give Amelia Bedelia books a high rating. This book does NOT disappoint

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

She is just as precocious and funny as a child as she grows up to be in the classic stories. This is an instance where the prequel/origin story works.

[Phoenix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phoenix really like this book as we have lots of bird tweeting around our house and in our bird feeder.

[Rebecca Millerjohn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This revamp of Amelia Bedelia is fun. A younger girl who is still very focused on schedules and following directions, but with a fun modern twist and cute family. Level 2ish early reader?

[Alina Lu · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's too difficult for level 1 child to read.

[Danette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute!
Read with Naomi & Simon.

[Rhyme Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite part was when when Amelia Bedelia thought slide + nest = family . It was so funny!