Good Work, Amelia Bedelia

Author: Peggy Parish
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Copyright: 1976
Genre: Fiction/Easy Reader
Pages: 56
Reading Level: Ages 4 to 8 (Barnes and Nobel)
Summary: This is, again, another account of a day when Amelia Bedelia, who interprets everything literally, makes a mess of things. Mrs. Rogers is going out for the day and leaves a list of things for Amelia Bedelia to do. She tries to make bread by following a recipe and when the recipe says to wait for the bread to rise, she thinks that it means levitate. Since it won't do it on its own she ties it in the air a leaves it to go do the other things on the list. This includes calling to have someone patch the door screen (which she decides to do herself), clean the ashes from the fireplace and fill the wood box (she fills it with the ashes from the fireplace), pot plants (puts them in cooking pots), make a chicken dinner (puts cracked corn on plates), and make a sponge cake (puts pieces of a real sponge in it). When Mr. and Mrs. Rogers get home they are very mad about how Amelia Bedelia has done everything. Mr. Rogers just about chokes on a piece of sponge in the sponge cake and in learning what it is, he and Mrs. Rogers start laughing. Amelia brings out another cake that she decided to make and they decide that even though she makes them mad, they need Amelia Bedelia!
Who would you recommend this book to? I would recommend this book to early readers and young children. The silly, nonsense ideas in the book would be really appealing to young kids.
Potential problems or conflicts: I don't see any potential problems or conflicts with this book.
My reaction: Yet again, Amelia Bedelia brings in a little humor and nonsense! I loved this book. I really liked the ending where Mr. and Mrs. Rogers just end up laughing at everything. Amelia Bedelia books are so fun! They are such great nonsense books.