Amelia Bedelia Means Business

I enjoyed this chapter book for many different reasons. I loved the characters in the book because I felt that they were well-developed. This book does not only focus on Amelia Bedelia's silly personally, but it also enhances the personalities of her parents, classmates, and neighbors. In order to earn money to buy her bike, Amelia helps Pete at his diner. Throughout this portion of the book, I felt like I knew Pete just as well as I knew Amelia. Developing many different characters is great for children because they are able to understand that all personalities are different and everyone brings something to the table. Additionally, I also enjoyed the illustrations throughout the book. For example, when Amelia decorates her bike as a show more "giant lemon tart," in attempts to attract customers, the illustrations portray her work. In the photo it shows that her tires look like "giant lemon slices," her back holds a sign demanding, "try a bite!" and on the top of her helmet is a "papier-måche lemon." This is just one example out of many that the illustrations throughout the book represent the plot of the story. Lastly, the humor throughout the story is hilarious. Amelia takes everything literally that her family and friends say; this creates a funny story for children to be constantly entertained. Overall, the message of this book is when life gives you lemons, make lemonade (literally AND figuratively). show less

So, we just hired ourselves a brand new pastor for our church. Her name is Emelia. Naturally, the thing that popped into my mind was Amelia Bedelia, which sounds similar, although spelled slightly differently. anyway, I just had to read an Amelia Bedelia book. I hope our new pastor will forgive me.

So, this book is full of plays on words. Young children, it seems, tend not to understand figures of speech, so take things literally. In this book, Amelia Belelia wants a new bike, but her parents tell her she needs to get a job to make half the money. So, she gets a job as a waitress in training. But, when a customer in a hurry asks for cherry pie, and emphasizes his request by appending "and step on it" to the end of his request, Amelia show more Belelia does exactly what he asks: she brings the pie to his place, then literally steps on it, squirting cherry pie filling all over the place.

Then, she sets up a lemon aid stand in front of a busy block where there's a prominent car dealer. She makes a huge sign that says, "Lots of Lemons", and places it next to the car dealer's sign. Naturally, that causes rather a lot of trouble.

Well, you get the idea. A short, amusing book with oodles of plays on words. It's not literature, but not a bad way to do some reading. show less

Young Amelia Bedelia is happy with her own bike until she sees her classmate Kaite-Lynne cruise up on a sparkling new, green model. From that moment, Amelia's heart is set on a shiny new bike, but her parents say they will only "meet her halfway"; she must earn half of the money for the bike on her own. Hilarity ensues as the little girl -- age about 8 -- tries her hand at different jobs. As a helper in a diner, she lasts less than a day. She opens a lemonade stand with a sign declaring "Lots of Lemons" next to a car lot. Young Amelia Bedelia bakes a mean lemon tart, and people can forgive a lot when lemon tarts are on the table. Amelia eventually saves enough to buy that new bike and realizes that its not all about how shiny, and show more pretty the new thing is it is about the story behind it and how it was earned! Amelia could say that she earned her bike and that was the best gift of all.

This is a good book to read to younger kids either during read aloud, or individual books for 3rd grade and older. It is a very engaging and interesting book, but since pictures are not involved it wouldn't be the best book to read aloud to young students such as kindergarten or 1st grade. Typically these age groups have a more difficult time saying engaged without pictures. It would be able to be utilized if the students were doing another activity while the teacher was reading. I would definitely read this series to my classroom because it sends a very good message to students about its not about how shiny and nice your possessions are, but about how you earn them. show less

Young Amelia Bedelia is happy with her own bike until she sees her classmate Kaite-Lynne cruise up on a sparkling new, green model. From that moment, Amelia's heart is set on a shiny new bike, but her parents say they will only "meet her halfway"; she must earn half of the money for the bike on her own. Hilarity ensues as the little girl -- age about 8 -- tries her hand at different jobs. As a helper in a diner, she lasts less than a day. She opens a lemonade stand with a sign declaring "Lots of Lemons" next to a car lot. But like the grown-up Amelia in the original early-reader books, young Amelia Bedelia bakes a mean lemon tart, and people can forgive a lot when lemon tarts are on the table.

I absolutely loved this book! The illustrations were bright and colorful on the cover page including the new shiny bike that Ameila wants. The other illustrations throughout the story are in black and white. The writing is very humorous and keeps the reader engaged when reading. I used to read the shorter Amelia Bedelia books which I loved as a child, and found it funny when she misunderstood all of the sayings that she read. In this book, when the employee says that “it’s on the house”, Amelia really thinks that the item is on the house. The characters are well-developed and I think children can relate to Amelia when she asks her parents for a new bike. The big idea of this story is that if you put hard work into something, in show more the end you will most likely be satisfied! show less

Amelia Bedelia is a self focused girl who wants to do things her own way. In a way, this is good because she can get kids to read and help them relate to someone their own age. However, she can be sassy and should be limited...

The theme of Amelia Bedelia is that creativity and ingenuity can help you achieve your goals. When Amelia Bedelia sees a classmates' bike that really makes her want to get a new one, her parents tell her that she must raise half of the money for it. Amelia tries all sorts of things to help her make money, including waitressing at a local diner, dog walking, and selling flowers. She gets into trouble along the way, but she continues to think of new creative ways to keep going forward. After many failures, she ends up selling Lemon Tarts and then decorating her bike as a lemon for a bike parade, which eventually helps her win a brand new bike.