The Amelia Bedelia Treasury: Three Books by Peggy Parish

The Amelia Bedelia Treasury: Three Books by Peggy Parish by Peggy Parish (Author), Fritz Siebel (Illustrator), Barbara Siebel Thomas (Illustrator)

Amelia Bedelia (1963)

Thank You, Amelia Bedelia (1964)

Amelia Bedelia and the Surprise Shower (1966)

These are the first Amelia Bedelia book. She takes everything literally and gets in all sorts of trouble because of it. However, she is also a great cook, and the delicious food always manages to save her. The third book is a bit different. Here, it is the literal understanding of "shower" and the spray with water that helps cure a headache. The food is incidental. These originals are better than the derivatives.

Amelia Bedelia Treasury

Amelia Bedelia interprets every request literally. This makes for jolly good fun at first, though it starts to get tiring after a few reads. This book consolidates three early Amelia Bedelia books. The first book stands on its own very well. The next two are obviously derivative. They employ the same literal-speaking misunderstandings, but seem to lack the originality and spunk of the first one. (The "misunderstandings" also become more of a stretch.)

I'm also a little curious about the illustrations. The pictures are copyrighted by Fritz Siebel, yet the illustration byline of the second two books goes to Barbara Siebel Thomas - after the drawings of Fritz Siebel. I'm not sure what this means. Perhaps he drew black some drawings and she colored them?