Calling Doctor Amelia Bedelia

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Summary: I wish I could write like this!
Review: Calling Doctor Amelia Bedelia by Herman Parish, like all of his Amelia Bedelia books, is hysterically funny. Parish's use of expressions confuse Mr. Rogers' maid, Amelia Bedelia, throughout the entire story. Poor, silly, Amelia Bedelia never realizes how confused she really is. She takes everything anyone says literally, so when her boss Mr. Rogers says "jump in the car", she thinks that he actually means to sit in the car and jump.
In this story, Amelia Bedelia goes to the doctor. However, when she gets there the nurse asks for Amelia Bedelia's help with the patients. A woman who calls the doctor's office to complain that she has "caught a bug" is told to "let it go" by Amelia Bedelia. She proceeds to tell a woman who has hives to bring some honey to the doctor's office. She looks at a bank's clock to take a patient's temperature and she tells a boy to draw his own blood onto a piece of blank paper. A boy says that he is at the office for a test and Amelia Bedelia tells him that he must go to school.
No matter what Amelia Bedelia did for most of the book, she is a hit when she "treats" the patients to ice cream! This is not exactly what the nurse had in mind when she said to treat the patients, however, Amelia Bedelia comes out looking like a hero!
Amelia Bedelia is entertaining to the adults who read this story to children because we have an even better sense of Amelia Bedelia's silliness. I love reading this story to my second graders and they love hearing it!

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Summary: Amelia Bedelia and Dr. Horton's impatient patients
Review: I do not think I will ever get tired of Amelia Bedelia, the literal-minded housekeeper. If anything, I am rather surprised that it has taken this long for her to invade a doctor's office. The results might be predictable, but that does not make them any less enjoyable as Amelia Bedelia deals with hoarse throats, drawing blood, and the proverbial pain in the neck. However, if there is one thing our lady of literality knows, it is the right way to treat patients, especially when they become impatient patients.

This is the fourth Amedlia Bedelia book by Herman Parish, the nephew of the beloved creator of this series, Peggy Parish. Parish's illustrator for all four of his Amelia Bedelia books has been Lynn Sweet, who lets us see what our loveable heroine is thinking when the people she encounters starting using metaphors and similes without thinking. However, Amelia Bedelia does appear to be mellowing a bit: When Mr. Rogers says it is hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk, she tries this out on the hood of his car and not on the dirty old sidewalk. It will be interesting to see what other new tricks she comes up with in the 21st century.