The (Dog) Show Must Go On! Amelia Bedelia Unleashed! by Herman Parish

Supper was almost ready. Something, however, was amiss.

"Amelia Bedelia, have you set the table yet?

Remember the napkins!" called her mother.

"I do!" yelled Amelia Bedelia. "They are dark blue, with white flowers!"

"Right," said her mom. "But please remember to put them out. And do you need glasses?"

"No!" said Amelia Bedelia. "Only Dad wears them!"

When Amelia Bedelia's parents finally sit down for dinner, she comes up with a question that stops the conversation cold.

"Can we have a baby?"

But before the speechless parents can compose themselves, a woman rings the doorbell asking for help finding her lost darling dog "Baby," and Amelia Bedelia is off on a series of dog-gone adventures that include finding the lost dog, deciding she wants a dog of her own, helping her friend, Diana with her dog-walking job to discover what kind of dog she wants, trying out skateboarding while she's holding a dog leash, and winding up helping her friend Charlie bathe and groom his poodle Pierre for the dog show. Nobody will be surprised when Amelia Bedelia has to handle Pierre the Poodle in the dog show. Pierre doesn't win, but he is declared the Most Unusual in Show.

It's a typical day in the Bedelia household, with the young Mistress of Malapropisms present and accounted for, in Herman Parish's Amelia Bedelia Unleashed (HarperCollins), the second in his series of early chapter books for rising primary grade readers. With short and fast-moving chapters loaded with plenty of Bedelia-isms, Herman Parish, nephew of Peggy Parish, creator of the original Amelia Bedelia picture book series, has added new books for fans of the Parish family library. Early elementary readers will be whizzing through these brisk narratives filled with Lynne Avril's line drawings to illustrate it all. For more malapropisms, puns, and wordplay, pair this one with the first book in the series, Amelia Bedelia Means Business.