Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping

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.... :-)

I loved this lively and humorous contemporary fiction picture book. It is about a confused housekeeper named Amelia Bedelia who takes everything literally. She went camping for the first time with Mr. Rogers and attempts to follow his orders, but doesn’t exactly get anything right. This story is packed with engaging dialogue and illustrations that really enhance the humor in the story, making it a fun read. For instance, prior to starting the camping adventure Mr. Rogers says to Amelia, “It’s time to hit the road,” so Amelia Bedelia “picked up a stick. And she hit the road,” (10). Furthermore, Mr. Rogers asked Amelia to pitch the tent, so she threw the tent as far away as possible and it landed in the bushes. The show more illustrations show Amelia’s excitement as the tent skyrockets through the air, and Mr. Rogers’s frustration when he discovers what she did. In essence, the main idea of the story is that Amelia Bedelia doesn’t exactly understand Mr. Roger’s vocabulary usage and seems to interpret everything exactly how he says it, which is a lesson in itself about idioms. show less

Amelias character is one that takes things so literal. It reminds me of how literal children can be, and how literal I was as a child. To me the importance of showing children such a humorous book they can relate to is very meaningful. Sometimes children need someone to relate to and I think they can definately relate to Amelia. I love when Mr. Roges says "let's hit the road." and she literally grabs a stick and hits the road with it.

Great book for beginning readers thanks to awesome humor and easy reading. Being the rather all-over-the-place housekeeper that she is, Amelia takes camping to a new level by mixing up what she is supposed to do with the literal meaning of the instructions she has been given. Beginning readers will gobble this whole series up and learn to read more fluently when encountering dialogue. This would also be a fun book to read out loud in class with several kids taking turns.

Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping shows the humorous misinterpretations of figurative language. This book is geared toward a younger audience but it would be very appropriate for teaching figurative language up to 3rd or 4th grade.

Amelia Bedelia always pleases young readers who know what she was SUPPOSED to do. I have heard of Amelia Bedelia books being used to identify talented and gifted students around first grade: if they laugh, they might qualify. Amelia Bedelia is a sweet fool, and young readers enjoy being smarter than her.

In my opinion, this book is a good read for beginning readers. The plot is very creative and the main character, Amelia, is quite a person. She is entertaining and funny yet very helpful. I think students would fall in love with her personality quickly. Amelia tends to do the most outrageous things but in the end, the reader knows she means well. The purpose of this story was to encourage children to take on activities they have never done before like camping.