Amelia Bedelia. The name just asks you to read it aloud. And what a character Amelia is! As with the very best fictional characters (I’m thinking of Anne Shirley, Pippi Longstocking and the like), Amelia’s personality leaps out of the pages. She makes you chuckle at her sheer optimism, at her zest and her drive. Obstacles? What are those?
Amelia sees Suzanne’s new bike and knows she has to get one for herself. But her parents are unwilling to give her an advance Christmas-cum-birthday present. What they are willing to do, however, is meet her halfway. If she can find a way to pay half the price, they’ll pay the other half. Amelia and her father shake hands, and they have a deal.
The problem, though, is Amelia’s tendency to take things literally. Idioms are puzzling. Ways of speaking make no sense. So, when she’s working at a restaurant and a customer asks her for ‘a pie – and step on it’, what do you think she does?
I know that Amelia Bedelia Means Business is probably a little advanced for some children in this age group, but it’s so much fun that I’m sure we’ll enjoy it anyway! Here’s what I will do with it at my reading programme.
Idioms
I’ve done workshops on idioms before, but I now know that Amelia Bedelia Means Business is the perfect book to use even in the future to play with idioms. What do we mean by the following?
- I’ll meet you halfway.
- A lemon
- A pink slip
- A piece of cake
- Easy as pie
I’m sure discussing these will lead to hilarious exchanges!
Business Ideas
Children always have wonderful business ideas. How can they earn money? What would they do with money that they earn? Do they have a piggy bank? I think we can have so many intriguing conversations about money making!
Discussion
What do we do when we make a mistake? How frightening is failure? Amelia is one resilient character. She makes mistake after mistake and bounces back each time. A book like this creates a safe space for children to talk about their failures and mistakes, and what they did to move on.
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