Peggy Parish (1927–1988)
Author of Amelia Bedelia
About the Author
Peggy Parish was born in Manning, South Carolina on July 14, 1927. She attended the University of South Carolina and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. While visiting her brother in Kentucky, Parish was persuaded to enter the teaching profession. After teaching creative dancing to young show more children, she moved to Oklahoma and taught third grade in the Panhandle, in addition to teaching dance and producing community shows. Parish's first book, My Golden Book of Manners, was published in 1961, followed by Let's Be Indians in 1962. A parent of one of the students, who was an editor of adult books, found out she was trying to break into the writing field and introduced her to an editor at Harper who helped improve her skills as a storyteller. This, of course, led to her biggest breakthrough, the creation of Amelia Bedelia in 1963. Parish eventually wrote 11 more Amelia Bedelia books as well as a number of mystery novels, and arts and crafts books. Among these other titles are Haunted House, Dinosaur Time, The Chimp That Went to School and Let's Celebrate: Holiday Decorations You Can Make. In addition to writing books, Parish did television pieces on preschool education and children's books, wrote book review columns and led a number of in-service training workshops for teachers. Parish died of an aneurysm on November 19, 1988. Her nephew, Herman Parish, continues to recreate new titles in the Amelia Bedelia series. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Peggy Parish
Amelia Bedelia I Can Read Box Set #1: Amelia Bedelia Hit the Books (I Can Read Level 2) (2016) 161 copies, 1 review
Amelia Bedelia audio collection. Vol. 1 110 copies
Amelia Bedelia and Her Wacky World: Amelia Bedelia and the Baby, Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping, Amelia Bedelia Helps Out, Good Work Amelia Bedilia (1986) 58 copies, 2 reviews
Amelia Bedelia and the Surprise Shower/The Smallest Cow in the World -- An I Can Read Activity Book (2003) 4 copies
Amelia Bedelia; Amelia Bedelia and the Surprise Shower; Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping; Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia (4 books) (1992) 3 copies
Amelia Bedelia Returns:Vol Two of the Amelia Bedelia Audio Collection UA CD: Amelia Bedelia for Mayor, Bravo Amelia Bede (2007) 3 copies
Let's Celebrate: Holiday Decorations You Can Make by Peggy Parish & illustrated by Lynn Sweat (1976) 3 copies
Amelia Bedelia 4 Mixed-Up Stories: A 4-in-1 Level 2 I Can Read Collection (I Can Read Level 2) (2025) 3 copies
MY DOG TALKS 2 copies
come back, amelia bedelia 1 copy
Amelia Bedelia Teacher Guide 1 copy
Dinsoaur Time 1 copy
No more monster forever 1 copy
Tulips for Annie's mother 1 copy
Biscuit Finds a Friend 1 copy
Teach Us, Emelia Bedelia 1 copy
Amelia Bedelia 6 Book Set: Amelia Bedelia Sleeps Over, Amelia Bedelia Joins the Club, Amelia Bedeli (2015) 1 copy
Mr. Adam's Mistake 1 copy
Be Ready at Eight 1 copy
Granny and the Indians 1 copy
Associated Works
The 20th-Century Children's Book Treasury: Picture Books and Stories to Read Aloud (1998) — Contributor — 1,828 copies, 14 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Parish, Margaret Cecile (birth name)
- Birthdate
- 1927-07-14
- Date of death
- 1988-11-19
- Gender
- female
- Education
- University of South Carolina (BA|English)
Vanderbilt University - Occupations
- teacher
children's book author
children's book reviewer
dance instructor - Organizations
- Authors Guild
Authors League of America
Delta Kappa Gamma
Dalton School
Carolina Today - Relationships
- Parish, Herman (nephew)
- Short biography
- Margaret Cecile "Peggy" Parish was an American writer known best for the children's book series and fictional character Amelia Bedelia. Parish was born in Manning, South Carolina to a poor family, attended the University of South Carolina, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. She worked as a teacher in Oklahoma, Kentucky, and in New York. She taught at the Dalton School in Manhattan for 15 years and published her first children's book while teaching third grade there. She authored over 30 books, which had sold 7 million copies at the time of her death.
- Cause of death
- aneurysm
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Manning, South Carolina, USA
- Places of residence
- Manning, South Carolina, USA
Columbia, South Carolina, USA
Nashville, Tennessee, USA - Place of death
- Manning, South Carolina, USA
- Burial location
- Manning Cemetery, Manning, South Carolina, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- South Carolina, USA
Members
Discussions
Children's Mystery: Clues, Treasure in the Walls? in Name that Book (July 2017)
Reviews
Always misunderstanding, and then saving the day with food! That's Amelia Bedelia!
Pitch a tent? Catch a fish? Hit the road? And, my personal favorite, sleeping bags? Dude, you've gotta give her more instruction, and Mr. and Mrs. Rogers should know this about her by now! Still, my 4 year old bonus son laughed at it, and my 12 year old daughter tried to predict which camping items would get misunderstood by A.B., so good family fun for us!
Sleeping bags.... :-)
Pitch a tent? Catch a fish? Hit the road? And, my personal favorite, sleeping bags? Dude, you've gotta give her more instruction, and Mr. and Mrs. Rogers should know this about her by now! Still, my 4 year old bonus son laughed at it, and my 12 year old daughter tried to predict which camping items would get misunderstood by A.B., so good family fun for us!
Sleeping bags.... :-)
Amelia Bedelia, that all-too-willing housemaid whose literal nature embroils her in countless scrapes whilst employed in the Rogers household, made her debut in 1963, in this first of numerous hilarious adventures. Eager to please and ready to work, she arrives on the job one morning, only to discover that Mrs. Rogers must run out, and has prepared a list of tasks for her complete. Unfortunately (or not, for the amused reader), while "dusting the furniture" or "putting the lights out" might show more seem like simple matters to some, for Amelia Bedelia they are rather puzzling affairs. Still, she is nothing if not obliging...
I loved reading the Amelia Bedelia books when I was a little girl, laughing at the heroine's many mix-ups, and relishing the knowledge that I, the child reader, knew better than the adult character what should be done. It was a pleasure to revisit her amusing antics as part of our November Picture-Book Club reading, as our theme this month has been "Classic Picture Book Characters." The combination of hilarious misunderstanding and subtly educational word-play make this a true classic in the field, one that will entertain child readers, even as it leads them to consider the multiple meanings that words can have, and the mistakes that can occur if one is ignorant of all idiomatic expressions, and interprets everything literally. Highly recommended to all beginning readers, whether they are a little literal themselves, or whether they just enjoy a good laugh. show less
I loved reading the Amelia Bedelia books when I was a little girl, laughing at the heroine's many mix-ups, and relishing the knowledge that I, the child reader, knew better than the adult character what should be done. It was a pleasure to revisit her amusing antics as part of our November Picture-Book Club reading, as our theme this month has been "Classic Picture Book Characters." The combination of hilarious misunderstanding and subtly educational word-play make this a true classic in the field, one that will entertain child readers, even as it leads them to consider the multiple meanings that words can have, and the mistakes that can occur if one is ignorant of all idiomatic expressions, and interprets everything literally. Highly recommended to all beginning readers, whether they are a little literal themselves, or whether they just enjoy a good laugh. show less
Amelia Bedelia won my heart many years ago when I was a youngster learning to read. This book always cracks me up reading it as an adult because many of the terms used are not terms kids are familiar with anymore. It is her first day of work at the Rogers' mansion. She can't believe what a grand house they have. When she reads the list that Mrs. Rogers left her, she gets right to work. But in true Amelia fashion, she gets very confused and does things the wrong way. She cuts up the towels to show more change them, pours dust all over the furniture to dust the room, and draws a picture of the drapes instead of drawing the drapes. The best was when she dressed the bird in actual clothing. The Rogers debate firing her, but when they smell her lemon pie, they can't bear to see her go. show less
I really enjoyed reading this book for several reasons. To begin, the illustrations in the story truly enhanced my understanding of the house in which Amelia Bedelia was cleaning. Not only were the pictures incredibly detailed, but were also coinciding with the narration perfectly. Had the illustrations been left out of the story, I feel I would not have grasped the chores Amelia Bedelia was instructed to do very well. In addition, I feel the characters within the story contributed greatly show more to the book as a whole. The older couple that hired Amelia, were two very stern individuals, so the story became very comical when Amelia was brought into the picture. Amelia’s character took each chore very literally, so the house became destroyed rather quickly, which made the read funny and enjoyable. The message underlying the story is that children should not take everything adults and children say literally. When every statement in the world is taken literally, there is little room for humor and sarcasm; two components of language that make conversing enjoyable and less serious. show less
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 99
- Also by
- 3
- Members
- 54,034
- Popularity
- #279
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 659
- ISBNs
- 515
- Languages
- 4
- Favorited
- 9
