Amelia Bedelia Means Business

Herman Parish's Amelia Bedelia Means Business is a funny chapter book for 6 year olds about a girl who needs to earn half a bike.

What happens

It all starts at the school bike rack. Suzanne Scroggins turns up on THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BIKE IN THE WORLD. It's emerald green and it sparkles.

Amelia Bedelia's own bike is a bit of a wreck. She can match every dent on it to a scab or a bruise on her (which is rather lovely, really).

So at dinner she asks her parents for a new one. They say they'll meet her halfway. Amelia Bedelia gets up and walks exactly halfway round the table to stand there and wait!

What they actually mean is that they'll pay for half if she earns the rest. So begins a very bumpy school holiday of jobs.

Her first is at Pete's Diner. A trucker in a hurry orders cherry pie and tells her to step on it. You can probably guess what happens next. She's let go in under an hour.

Then there's a bunch of flowers she really shouldn't have picked, a policeman, and a lemonade stand set up right outside Wild Bill's car showroom. The name she paints on her sign gets her on the lunchtime news, and not in a good way.

That's how these books work. Grown-ups say "cut the mustard" or "show you the ropes" and Amelia Bedelia hears every word EXACTLY as it's said. Your reader will be a step ahead of her most of the time, and that's the fun.

It's also quite sweet underneath. Her parents swap secret looks over her head and she misses every one of them. When she's fired, her lip wobbles and they scoop her up for a hug.

It's an American book, so it's dollars, a diner and the school vacation. One of the best jokes hangs on a "lemon" meaning a car that doesn't work, which you might need to explain (it's worth it for the look on Wild Bill's face).

There's no real caution here. Nobody is unkind for long, and even the policeman lets her off with a warning.

What to read next

Do they love spotting a joke before the grown-ups do? If so, they'll probably want more. In Amelia Bedelia Shapes Up she's picked last for kickball (after a water fountain, no less), and her parents start whispering about sports camp.