Calling Doctor Amelia Bedelia

Amelia Bedelia #16

by Herman Parish, Lynn Sweat (Illustrator)

Learn to read with the classic Amelia Bedelia!

Ever since Amelia Bedelia made her debut in 1963, young readers have been laughing out loud at the antics of this literal-minded but charming housekeeper.

The doctor is out! But Amelia Bedelia is ready to help a crowd of grouchy patients. Along the way she doses out some of the best medicine of all -- laughter, of course!

"No child can resist Amelia [Bedelia] and her literal trips through the minefield of the English language—and no adult can fail to notice that she's usually right when she's wrong."—The New York Times Book Review

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Humor, Kids, Chapter Books, Juvenile

64 pages, Hardcover

First published July 23, 2002

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

[Rossy]

She's so funny and annoying! :P
I loved it when a lady called and told Amelia Bedelia "I've got hives", and Amelia Bedelia told her to bring some honey.

[Jennifer (JenIsNotaBookSnob)]

Excellent, even though the humor is a bit infuriating.

My daughter just loves Amelia Bedelia right now. She loves how infernally infuriating she is, how she just really gets under people's skin. Amelia Bedelia is one of those classics of childhood that all children should get to experience a couple times. My daughter wasn't a fan when she was younger, but, now all of a sudden at age 7 she's all about Amelia.

I was never much of a fan of Amelia myself. Even as a kid I found her annoying. But, my younger siblings just loved Amelia, so I read her quite a bit.

[Katja Labonté]

5 stars & 5/10 hearts. This may be the funniest Amelia Bedelia, even funnier than Good Driving, Amelia Bedelia. My 19-year-old sister and I laughed so hard over it. The little ones had to have some of the jokes explained, but even they enjoyed it. A brilliant take on Amelia Bedelia—and did she ever roast Mr. Rogers!!

[Danielle]

Obviously this can't compare to the original series by Peggy Parish, but still a lot of fun.

[Andrea Carter]

The book 'Calling Doctor Amelia Bedelia' written by Herman Parish and illustrated by Lynn Sweat is a story in the classic series of books titled Amelia Bedelia. Typical Amelia Bedelia finds herself in some sort of pickle. This book in the series finds Amelia at a doctors office treating patients when she clearly lacks the skills to do so. She tells people the wrong things to do. For example, she tells someone to go to school for a blood test. Amelia's goofy personality switches up words like patience for patients and she treats the entire office of Dr. Horton to ice cream.

The cover of this book showed Amelia Bedelia running with a doctor's bag with all of the supplies flying out of it. In the upper corners it also showed two children laughing at her. I thought the cover did a good job of depicting Amelia's funny personality. The colors of the illustrations are bright and different. Many of the pictures are detailed. I would use this book for advanced primary grades. I could read one book in the whole series to spark interest in the students. The illustrations in the book went along chronologically with the story line. Many of the pages in the book were designed the same. Most of the time the pictures only spanned across a fourth of the page and sometimes half. This book was 64 pages long and had average print for a easy to read picture book.

Another aspect I enjoyed in this book was a "prescription" it had on the inside of the cover. It explains what the book is about and is almost used as a book trailer/commercial.

[Kimberly]

Funny bones

The doctor is out! But Amelia Bedelia is ready to help a crowd of grouchy patients. Along the way she doses out some of the best medicine of all -- laughter, of course!

From Publishers Weekly

"I hear a ringing in my ears." "A ringing? Maybe you should answer the doorbell." The inimitable housekeeper helps out at the doctor's office and stirs up trouble in Calling Doctor Amelia Bedelia by Herman Parish, illus. by Lynn Sweat, the fourth title penned by Peggy Parish's nephew. Ages 5-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-2-Parish continues the series in the wacky tradition of his aunt, Peggy Parish. Dropping by her doctor's office on a busy day, Amelia Bedelia is asked by the nurse to help out until the doctor returns from the hospital. The literal-minded maid winds up fielding phone calls from patients, infuriating one and all as she interprets their symptoms incorrectly. Finally, the doctor arrives to find her office full of irate patients. Amelia Bedelia saves the day by treating everyone to ice cream. A realistic situation? Of course not. It's just another romp with the world's most clueless domestic. As always, Sweat's color drawings perfectly capture the wild goings-on. A lively addition to the series.
Lisa Smith, Lindenhurst Memorial Library, NY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

[Tony Lewis]

Title: Calling Doctor Amelia Bedelia
Author: Herman Parish
Illustrator: Lynn Sweat
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Publishing Date: 2002
ISBN Number: 0-06-001421-0

Summary: Amelia Bedelia once again has the task of solving problems by using a long list of a play on words. She answers the call for many sick people who have the hives (where bees make honey), chicken pox (animal references), I've caught some kind of bug (insects), and drawing blood (putting it down on paper). The illustrations and the story are a lot of fun for all ages.

Age Level:6-8

Instructional Uses and Student Activities:The vocabulary, reference meaning, and games that can be palyed with words are all lesson possibilities. The story also offers some chances to do a class play that would be fun for parents and other students. Literacy can be fun if the imagination is allowed to invent games and active projects. The children could try and come up with some of their own play on word stories and manufacture a book of riddles or games to play.

[Liliana Jaramillo]

The series of books by Amelia Bedelia are very fun, keeping the attention of children for the follies and the big mistakes that she commits, by literally follow the instructions. This kind of books helps us teach synonyms and as few words may have different meanings so expanding the vocabulary of children

[Hannah B Grant]

I adored Amelia Bedelia as a little girl. I was particularly drawn to this book , where Amelia fills in for a doctor . With her inclination to take things literally, Amelia Bedelia takes the nurses instructions to a very imaginative and hilarious place.

[Henry]

*I am entering this review on behalf of my newly 7-year-old son.*
This book was my reading homework. I thought Amelia Bedelia was funny because she kept not understanding her patients and doing the wrong thing! She's so silly. But I like books with more adventure and that are a little harder to read. I'm going to read it to my little brother (5 years) because I think he would like it better than me.

[Joey Gremillion]

When I was a young'un, in the third grade, we read about Amelia Bedelia's misadventures and misunderstandings. NOW, they have created a series with Amelia Bedelia as a young child, STILL misunderstanding and misinterpreting.

[Riley Mullis]

Amelia Bedelia goes to her doctor's office, to find out her doctor is very very busy, and is asked by the nurse to help out until the doctor returns from the hospital. Amelia winds up fielding phone calls from patients, infuriating one and all as she interprets their symptoms incorrectly.

[Lonicocopuffs]

This one was more alarming than funny. Amelia Bedelia being in a hospital is the last thing anyone would want. I'm just glad she didn't do open heart surgery on anyone, which we all know she has half a mind to do!

[AMY]

This is a hilarious picture book that young kids will love. Amelia Bedelia goes to help at the doctor's office and gets a lot of things mixed up. Kids will enjoy the words that have two meaning and all the trouble it causes. Highly recommended for Grades K-2.

[Elly Sun]

I like this book because Amelia Bedelia is so silly.

[Bryn]

Read as part of my personal "Catch up on childhood classics" challenge.

I think my favorite part was Amelia giving the boy a crayon so he could draw his own blood.

[Mama Smith]

Always cute puns but definitely need to be elementary age to get all the ‘jokes.’

[Elizabeth]

This one is funny! Classic Amelia Bedelia humor here.

[Lida]

I remember reading these as a kid and finding them so funny. I read this to my younger brother and he really enjoyed it. Still a popular series.

[Rylan]

I had absolutely no reason behind this besides the fact that I’m bored and got distracted by it.

[SteFF]

Amelia Bedelia is loads of fun!

[Grace Lynch]

This book! The phone calls Amelia got and had were just great. It was a fun read!

[Theresa Wade]

I read this with my 3rd graders! They loved it. I had forgotten how funny it was. We will definitely read more.

[Aadya]

very nice funny and stupid. Sometimes I releated with her

[Virginia]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Taylor Miller]

As a long picture book, this could be a great read for story time a few days or times during the day in a row. Amelia Bedilia is a hoot. She's sarcastic, hilarious, and a bit on the ditzy side. But that's why I love her! When put in a doctor's office, Amelia tries her hardest to help, but it may not be the best. From telling a lady who caught a bug to let it go or letting Andy draw his own blood all over the chair with crayon, her help may be a little off. It's a fun book any kid would enjoy and I bet it would make kid's laugh and feel even smarter than Amelia Bedilia is.

[Tasasha Battle]

Another infamous series about Amelia Bedelia. In this one Amelia has her hands full with taking doctor calls. She do her very best to assist the doctor's calls while he is out. However, everytime a call comes in Amelia tosses and jumbles the words around. This is another great play with words from Parish. This book can be used show children what homonym words are and how they can be used to in their writings. The students can write silly writing where they play with words like Parish.

[John]

Amelia Bedelia is always a riot, and she is nothing shy of the sort in this book. In a struggle to assist in a doctors office, Amelia finds herself causing more harm than good, as per usual. The traditional Amelia Bedelia illustrations are back once more, and as simple as ever before. There is just enough detail in the illustrations to understand the situation. A short story, Amelia Bedelia is great for good, clean fun, and a must read for all beginner readers.

[Ozge]

Amelia Bedelia books are so funny and they are quite popular among my 6 year old's fiends. The language in this one is a bit too difficult for non-native speakers like us. It took a while to go through the whole book and explain it to my daughter. Probably makes more sens for a little older kids. Very creative and very funny!

[Kokoro]

Amelia Bedelia is so funny. Especially, I like Amelia's reply. Mrs.Bender told to Amelia,"I have got hives." But, Amelia deluded "hive". And, Amelia call Mrs.Bender's name, "honey". Finally, Amelia told to Mrs.Bender,"Please bring us some honey." Mrs.Bender got angry, hung up the telephone.
I Was laughed.