This week I went to Barnes and Noble and sat and read through the collection of Amelia Bedelia Books for 90 minutes on Saturday, June 9, 2012
The Adventures of Amelia Bedelia was a three pack collection of stories from the Amelia Bedelia book collection. The first story was titled "Amelia Bedelia". In this story she is house sitting for the people that she works for, so they left a list of chores for her to complete in the meantime. Amelia Bedelia has a horrible time understanding the true meaning behind commands and takes them literally. For example, the list requested that she "dress the turkey for dinner", so she clothed the turkey in a jumpsuit and socks. The story was hilarious, and as usual she smoothed things over by making a wonderful signature dessert.
The second story was called "Come Back, Amelia Bedelia". In this story she was fired, and had to go job hunting. She tried numerous different jobs, but kept getting fired on the spot for misinterpreting the directions. For instance, one job required her to "shorten the dresses in the changing room", so she took a pair of scissors and cut every dress shorter and was asked to leave. She eventually ended up back at the home that she was fired from in the beginning of the story.
The third and final story was titled "Play Ball, Amelia Bedelia", and she offered to help out a little league baseball team since one of their players was sick with the measles. She cannot follow directions in a nonliteral way even when given by a child. The team told her to "step into the ball and meet it" in order to hit it when she swings, so she stepped up during the pitch to shake the ball's hand and got hit in the shoulder.
I always enjoy reading Amelia Bedelia stories because it is hilarious watching her be repremanded for making honest mistakes. I would recommend educators to use this story to exercise chilrens abilities to determine the literal and nonliteral meanings of phrases or commands. If nothing else, these stories are entertaining.
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