Amelia Bedelia , Peggy Parish ’s spoil but darling housekeeper , has been delight nestling and adults alike since shedebuted in 1963 , and is now one of the most treasured children ’s volume characters of all time . While you may be familiar with hercreative take on home task , here are a few thing you may not know aboutAmelia Bedelia .
1.Amelia Bedeliawas not author Peggy Parish’s first children’s book.
Parish was already a published author at that clock time when the firstAmeliabook was released in 1963 . Her first Word , permit ’s Be Indians , was issued in 1962 by Harper and Row , under the guidance of editor Susan Hirschman . Throughout her life history Parish would go on to writeover 30 script , 12 of which sport Miss Bedelia — but on the face of it , not all of her ideas were home ladder .
“ She do in and she had variety of terrible manuscripts about angelical little pussycats — verbalize kitty-cat , as I remember . Nothing very interesting at all,”Hirschman said in a 2013 audience , “ [ but ] she was fascinating , so it was decipherable that there was something more to come … and Peggy know how funny she was . ” The creation and subsequent achiever of Amelia Bedelia was inevitable with a mind like Peggy ’s .
2. Amelia Bedelia is an amalgam of Parish’s third grade students, a former housekeeper of her grandparents, and herself.
Parish teach third grade at New York ’s progressive Dalton School for 15 geezerhood , during which she write the first Amelia Bedelia book . Amelia ’s alone worldview was work by Parish ’s interactions with her students — their youthful naiveté was demonstrate in their approach to language and their reason of the concept of idioms . She realized that a individual who took everything at face note value and the various hijinks that could ensue would make for an interesting account .
Years later , her nephew — andfuture author of the serial — Herman Parish hear a tale from one of his late aunt ’s first cousin about a young inept housekeeper who used to work for their grandparents . “ [ Their grandmother ] told her to ‘ cross around the way ’ … she did just what she was tell : She sweep the edge of the room clean , but result the center of the room untouched,”Herman said in a 2013 interview . “ I asked this first cousin if he had ever reminded Peggy about this maidservant . He articulate that when he did , Peggy did not say anything — she just smiled . ”
Herman also believed that a bit of his auntie herself was present in the character : “ [ She ] would often take thing literally , not continually as Amelia Bedelia does , but enough multiplication that one could understand how she could have come up with the case by nature , ” he say . He even dedicated his first book of account in the series , Good Driving , Amelia Bedelia , to “ Peggy Parish , the real Amelia . ”
3. Once she thought of “Amelia Bedelia,” Parish instantly knew that was the name of her character.
“ I wanted a bivalent name , it had to be a doubled name,”Parish once said . She save name calling down as they came to her , but knew in her mettle that they were n’t the correct paroxysm . When the name “ Amelia Bedelia ” came to her “ out of the blue , ” however , she did n’t have to write it down — she knew she had eventually found her name .
4. The Amelia Bedelia series has stayed in the family …
After Peggy Parish ’s sudden death in 1988 , Amelia Bedelia took a break from new risky venture for a while . But Amelia ’s popularity did not take a break , and the Parish family continue to receive requests from children of all ages to write more of her stories . Various other children ’s book authors reached out to the kinfolk with offers to continue the series , but Herman Parish , Peggy ’s nephew , feel uneasyabout her leave the folk . A working copywriter , he thought he might be a sound choice to continue Amelia ’s legacy , but he assert that he was n’t pass away to be published “ just because [ he ’s ] a Parish . ” He canvass his aunt ’s books for over a year before he felt qualified to pick up a pen himself . Things definitely worked out ; after the success of his first book , Good Driving , Amelia Bedelia , Herman has gone on to issue more than 30 Amelia Holy Writ of his own .
5. … But Herman has created his own take on the character.
inundate with question from kids about whether Amelia had “ always been like that , ” Herman was inspired to start publish about her puerility and wacky misadventure . His first youthful Amelia book , Amelia Bedelia ’s First Day of School , was published in 2009 andbecame aNew York Timesbestseller . He has continued to spell about her childhood , and has even start to write chapter books about new Amelia for slimly older proofreader as well .
6. There’s a statue of Amelia Bedelia in Parish’s hometown.
Parish , who was originally from Manning , South Carolina , moved back to the country after spending a number of class in New York . The town of Manning decided to honor her bycommissioning a statue of Ameliafrom sculptor James Peter Chaconas . Erected in 1999 , the bronze statue of Amelia proudly stands in front of the Harvin Clarendon County Library in Manning as a touching testimonial to one of the pocket-size town ’s most cherished former residents .
7.This American Lifedid an episode in 2021 imagining a modern Amelia dealing with quarantine and remote work.
NPR’sThis American Lifepodcast court writer Hallie Cantor to project Amelia ’s response to COVID-19 lockdowns and the work - from - home life sentence . Take a listenwhile Amelia literally “ hops on a Zoom call ” and visits a baseball field to “ bear upon root word with HR . ”
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