Children's author Herman Parish — who took over writing "Amelia Bedelia" books after his aunt, Peggy Parish, the creator and original author, passed away in 1988 — will visit with Darlington's ELA-5 students on March 26.
"Many of us grew up reading about the wacky antics of the well-meaning but easily confused Amelia Bedelia," said Susan Foster, PK-2 librarian. "Herman Parish picked up where his aunt left off, writing more adventures about the spunky Amelia, including stories of her as a child. We are so excited for our students to meet him and hear how he got started writing."
In his biography, Parish says he backed into writing the "Amelia Bedelia" series "in true Amelia form." After his aunt passed away, she continued to receive fan mail from children wondering when the next "Amelia Bedelia" book would be out. Then, other children’s authors wrote and volunteered to continue the series.
"I felt uneasy about Amelia Bedelia leaving our family," Parish said. "As I was in the fourth grade when she first appeared, I had literally grown up with her. So I decided to try to write a new 'Amelia Bedelia'
adventure. My two sisters and my family were very supportive and encouraged me."
Parish, who had experience in writing advertisements, started by rereading the "Amelia Bedelia" stories to figure out what made them so funny.
"I realized that everyday life overflows with idiomatic expressions, literalisms and homophones," he explained. "It’s amazing
more people don’t get confused — besides Amelia Bedelia!"
His first book, "Good Driving, Amelia Bedelia," took him a year to think about and one night to write.
"I had been collecting ideas, homonyms and expressions. Whenever I heard them, I jotted them down: on napkins in restaurants,
on my newspaper while riding the bus, and on agenda sheets in business meetings," Parish said. "I stockpiled these fragments in a folder until one Sunday night, with my family asleep, I decided that it was now or never. I sat down around 10 p.m. and began to write. I was
so focused on the story that I finished as the sun came up on Monday morning. Naturally, the story needed revision, but the essence was captured in that all-night writing spree."
His editor, Susan Hirschman, and the illustrator, Lynn Sweat, had worked with creator Peggy Parish on many "Amelia Bedelia" books, which helped ensure a seamless transition between the original author's books and his.
"I feel very lucky to be writing 'Amelia Bedelia' books and continuing a family tradition," Parish said. "But the best reward was when a child wrote Peggy Parish a fan letter. It said that 'Good Driving, Amelia Bedelia' was the best book she had written. To me, that’s the highest compliment I could hope for."
