Amelia Bedelia Sleeps Over: A Fun Beginning Reader for Kids (Ages 4-8) about Friends and Silly Sleepover Mix-Ups

Young Amelia Bedelia - I Can Read!

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!  Amelia Bedelia's friend Rose is having a slumber party. It's Amelia Bedelia's first sleepover, and she's confused. Isn't sleeping boring? Luckily, all the girls in Amelia Bedelia's class are there, and the party is the exact opposite of boring. There are pizzas to eat, games to play, and fingernail polish in all the colors of the rainbow to admire. And when it is time to go to sleep, well, something unexpected happens then, too. Amelia Bedelia discovers that friends and family are the best, no matter what time of day it is, in this Level 1 I Can Read, perfect for children learning to sound out words and sentences.  

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books, Humor, Fiction

32 pages, Paperback

First published August 21, 2012

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

[Asho]

I find the "little girl" Amelia Bedelia books rather hit-or-miss, but L (7) likes all of them, and even I thought this one was cute as an introduction to sleepovers. I feel like the newer books don't have as much of the pun-y cleverness of the old ones, but this one has some clever bits.

[Angela]

A nice gentle story about the fun of a sleep over and what you might do at one. But not laugh-out-loud funny like the original Amelia Bedelia books.

[Mac West]

Too girly.

[Dana Thomas]

My daughter got this book as a freebie from the local library's summer reading program. I grew up reading the Amelia Bedelia series and was surprised to see the "kid" version in existence!

This is a great, easy read for me to read to my daughter but it's also and easy read for beginner readers. I love that there is still the same humor found in he original books, even though my 3-year-old doesn't quite understand them! I really want to get my hands on more of the series as they have great life lessons in some for young kids as well as teaching them to read.

[McKinzie Halverson]

Amelia Bedelia Sleeps Over is a cute realistic fiction book about Amelia's first sleepover. They painted nails, ate pizza, played tag, and made smores. When she is ready to sleep her flashlight dies and she figures out that the moon can give her enough light so she can sleep through the night. I would recommend this book for 4-7 year olds. They show diversity in this book within the girls at the sleepover. All the girls are different in one way or another. Amelia Bedelia is a good book. Obviously it is out of my age range but I can relate from my childhood.

[Kristen]

Izzy finally found her copy of Amelia Bedelia Sleeps Over so we were able to finish reading it. Why the heck are they teaching the kids to use context clues while teaching them to sound out words? Iz focuses more on the pictures then the letters. . .and the uses words with VERY different lengths and phonetics compared to the letters in the word in question. Her favorite part was Amelia Bedelia calling her father "moon man".

[Sterlande Altidor]

I love this book. Amelia Bedelia now is one of my favorites. I would recommend this to any parent that’s sending their children in their first sleep over at a friend’s house. I think that this is a great way to teach them about all the fun activities they are going to have at their first sleep over.

[Kristina]

This was a cute book. Not exactly the same as the books that I grew up with but the story was cute just the same. This was a beginner reading level. I did help my younger reader a few times with some of the words. This is also an AR book for anyone who wants to know. I would recommend this book to others.

[Anna Marie]

Read with Cecilia 14 feb 2024

Written by the son, this is a story about when Amelia was a child, still misunderstanding things that are said to her. But everyone seems to be very compassionate about it. So everyone has lots of fun.

[Alexandra Hinkle]

Good story for young readers

Thumbs up from mommy and daughter. Maybe Kinder level but not challenging. Next time level 2 for sure .. ..

[livii]

I love the idea of sleeping over at A friend's house. If your little one does too,you should get this book for them and or have them bring this to a sleepover to read to other friends 🤗🤗🤗

[Matt Purser]

This book is great

[Charlotte Chan]

I love slumber party 🥳 🎉 ❤ 💕

[faithsreads]

childhood fave book

[KaitandMaddie]

Not bad. The girls seem to like her as a character.

[Carrie Allen]

This series is so fun!

[Lee Suji]

l

[Alice]

4 stars
Young Amelia Bedelia sleeps over.

[Molly Ritterbeck]

Perfect book to read to get a child ready for their first sleepover!

[Mary]

This book is Level One in the I Can Read series of easy readers. This means it has fewer pages than the original Amelia Bedelia stories. It also has shorter sentences and a more controlled vocabulary. Amelia Bedelia still has humorous misunderstandings, but the wordplay is much simpler than that in the original Amelia Bedelia stories.

I recommend these as a nice introduction to Amelia Bedelia for first graders, and for kindergarteners who are rapidly developing their independent reading skills.

[Renise Black]

Simple, easy to read and understand story from my five year old daughter. Sorry it is simple but for an early reader can be challenging.The book itself covers and some topic, babysitting. It goes through the basics for girls with lots of pink etc. Not much humor but there is curiosity implying that it is Amelia Bedelia's very first sleepover.

Overall I would say it was a happy read for my daughter. Sheenjoyed hearing the story and my overall enjoyed reading it to her. It was pretty straightforward.

[Tiffany Bates]

This is a very funny story of Amelia Bedelia and her first sleepover. She has lots of questions and thinks that it will be boring. But it turns out to be really fun! This is for beginning readers. I would reccommend it for girls from 1st grade to 2nd grade. It is a easy read with simple sentences. But interesting and challenging enough for the readers. I would use this book as a writing activity to see what other kids do at sleepovers.

[Bailey]

The little girl in me loves this book, it brings back great memories from my own sleepovers with friends. The Amelia Bedelia series is one that I think a lot of young girls can really relate to, also they are pretty easy reads. I like that it says on the top what the reading level is of them as well. I feel as a future teacher that would be very helpful. I recommend no only this book but all of the Amelia Bedelia books.

[IrenesBookReviews]

This is another great book about Amelia Bedelia. It is part of the I Can Read book set and is Step 1. I gave this book 5/5 stars. I think it is perfect for any little girl who is about to go on her first sleepover or for any child who is curious about what might happen. I liked how the book was illustrated and how Amelia Bedelia was as silly as ever! A great book for any girl to read!

[Alesha]

Cute, cute, cute! I'm not a huge fan of the Young Amelia Bedelia series, but this early reader is spot-on. It has just enough of the characteristic literalism that made us fall in love with the "old" Amelia.

Puns are used rather sparsely in this tale of the youngster's first sleepover, but in this story, a little goes a long way.

[K.]

I absolutely love that they have revamped the Amelia Bedelia books for the younger generation. My daughter had a blast reading this book with me and seeing what Amelia and her friends did at their first sleep over.

[Holly Letson]

This one was hit-and-miss for me. I didn't like the audio much. Also, I felt like Amelia Bedelia really shouldn't be afraid of the dark. But, it had its' moments, like the s'mores and the nail polishes, that I did actually enjoy.

[Rhyme Owens]

My favorite part was when Amelia Bedelia's mom said that they were going to paint nails, Amelia Bedelia thought they meant nails that you hit with a hammer, but Amelia Bedelia's mom actually meant fingernails how funny!

[Lorelei]

Lorelei, 3, was confused why Amelia was so young. Not nearly as fun as the originals.

[Maria Finazzo Hernandez]

Cute quick read and fun to learn reading at a small age!