Amelia Bedelia and the Surprise Shower

By Peggy Parish 

Pictures by Fritz Siebel

Copyright 1966

Amelia Bedelia takes every word literally.  She doesn’t understand how to “read between the lines”.  I’ve always loved the funny predicaments she ends up in due to this trait.  In this volume, Amelia has been asked to help out at a wedding shower for Miss Alma.  You can just imagine what she does when she’s asked to “run over the tablecloth with an iron”.  She probably should have taken her shoes off first. 

Pruning the hedges also takes on a whole new meaning.

The best part, though, is when Miss Alma finally shows up for her surprise shower and really is surprised when Amelia Bedelia turns on the garden hose.  Amelia really hadn’t understood why Miss Alma couldn’t take a shower on her own!

This book reminds of a time when my daughter was about two years old.  I was having a phone conversation and she was trying to get my attention.  Impatiently, I told her, “Laura, hold your horses!” It took me a moment to understand why she then came running up to me with two little toy horses in her hands.  I don’t think she understood why I laughed so hard.

Amelia Bedelia reminds me to not take myself too seriously.  She teaches me to laugh at my silly mistakes and to let other people laugh at my mistakes too.  Like the time a couple of years ago when I was talking to my daughter on my cell phone, while telling her frantically that I couldn’t find my cell phone because it wasn’t in my purse.  We’re still laughing at that one!  Surely I’m not the only one who does things like that?