Amelia Bedelia Bookmark | Peggy Parish Literary Classic | Nostalgic Reader Gift

She did exactly what she was asked. That was the problem.

For every reader who was read Amelia Bedelia as a child and has never fully recovered from the chicken in the outfit.
For every parent who has read these books to their own child and laughed just as hard the fifteenth time as the first time because the drapes being drawn on rather than closed is genuinely funny every single time and it always will be.
For every teacher and every librarian and every aunt and every grandparent who has put an Amelia Bedelia book in a child's hands and watched their face when they understood what draw the drapes meant to Amelia Bedelia specifically.
For every person who has ever been asked to do something completely reasonable and briefly considered the Amelia Bedelia interpretation and then thought better of it. Mostly.
This bookmark is for all of you. The list is on the counter. Amelia Bedelia is on it. The pie is already in the oven. Everything is going to be fine. Mostly.

✦ ABOUT THIS BOOKMARK
A richly illustrated scene of the Rogers household on the day of one of Amelia Bedelia's most spectacular lists — the house rendered in the warm cheerful illustration aesthetic of the original Amelia Bedelia books, the domestic world of a mid-century American home in the full warm glorious aftermath of Amelia Bedelia going through her list with complete sincerity and magnificent results.
The bookstore exterior — forgive the correction — the Rogers house exterior is visible at the very top of the composition in the warm afternoon light, the garden present with its hedges trimmed with the particular geometric enthusiasm of someone who took that instruction very seriously and brought real commitment to its execution. The garden is technically trimmed. It looks different than expected. It looks exactly like what you get when you ask Amelia Bedelia to trim something.
Moving through the front door into the hallway and the living room — the drapes are drawn. Not closed. Drawn. The curtains now bear the earnest and cheerful artwork of a person who was asked to draw the drapes and drew the drapes in the most literal and most committed way available to her. The drawings are charming. They are on the curtains. The curtains were not expecting this.
The furniture has been dusted — dust applied to it in an even and careful coating because that is what dusting means if you think about it which Amelia Bedelia did. The lights are out — placed in a neat and thoughtful row on the mantelpiece because put the lights out is a completely clear instruction if you approach it without any preconceptions about what out means in this context.
The chicken is somewhere in the composition wearing a very small outfit. The chicken was asked to be dressed and the chicken has been dressed with considerable skill and apparent cooperation. The chicken is managing.
The kitchen in the lower portion of the composition glows warm amber — the kitchen where everything is saved, the room where the extraordinary pie is currently in the oven filling the house with the particular smell that means everything is going to be forgiven because the pie is extraordinary and Amelia Bedelia always makes an extraordinary pie. The household list on the counter. The evidence of a morning well spent according to one specific interpretation of the English language. The oven doing its important work.
She did exactly what she was asked. Every single item. With complete attention and complete sincerity and complete literal dedication.
That was the problem. It was also, in the end, completely fine.

✦ BOOKMARK DETAILS
— Size: 2.15 inches wide by 6.75 inches tall — Printed on premium card stock — Full color illustration front with matte finish — Arrives in a kraft envelope — Ready to use in your current read or to give immediately to the person you thought of the moment you read draw the drapes

✦ PERFECT FOR
— Every adult who loved Amelia Bedelia as a child and loves her more now — Parents reading Amelia Bedelia to their children right now — this bookmark is for them and also for the child who will understand it better every year — Teachers and librarians who have introduced Amelia Bedelia to children and watched the specific moment of comprehension arrive on a child's face when they understood the drapes — Grandparents who read these books to their own children decades ago and are now reading them to their grandchildren — Anyone who has ever been asked to do something and briefly considered doing it the Amelia Bedelia way — Children's book collectors and vintage children's literature enthusiasts who know that Peggy Parish created one of the most enduring comic characters in American children's literature — Gifts for the reader who loved Amelia Bedelia and the reader who is discovering her for the first time and the reader who teaches these books and the reader who collects them — Book clubs reading children's literature — Amelia Bedelia generates surprisingly profound conversations about language and interpretation and the comedy of sincerity — Birthdays and holidays for every generation simultaneously — this bookmark works for the child and the parent and the grandparent and the teacher all at once — Treating yourself — Amelia Bedelia would do exactly what she was asked with this bookmark and she would be exactly right about it

✦ A NOTE ON THE CHICKEN
The chicken is in this bookmark.
The chicken is wearing a very small outfit. The outfit was made with skill and attention and the chicken appears to have accepted the situation with the philosophical equanimity of a chicken that has seen some things.
Amelia Bedelia was asked to dress the chicken. She dressed the chicken. The instruction was completely clear. The result was completely not what was intended. Both of these things are true and the chicken is fine and the pie is in the oven.

✦ THE DRAPES
The drapes have been drawn.
Not closed. Drawn. With what appears to be considerable artistic enthusiasm and a steady hand. The curtains are now decorated with flowers and birds and the kind of cheerful illustration that results when someone of genuine ability and complete sincerity is given both a drawing instruction and access to fabric.
The drapes are drawn. They are beautiful. They are not what was asked for. They are exactly what was asked for. Amelia Bedelia is very clear on this point.

✦ THE LIST
The household list is visible on the kitchen counter in this bookmark. Several items are visible as warm texture — draw the drapes, dress the chicken, dust the furniture, put out the lights, trim the hedges, change the towels.
Every item has been completed. Every item has been completed correctly according to one specific and entirely defensible interpretation of the English language. The house is in its current condition as a direct result of complete compliance with every instruction on the list.
The list said what it said. Amelia Bedelia did what it said. The pie is in the oven. The chicken is dressed. Everything is proceeding exactly as requested.

✦ THE PIE
The pie is in the oven in this bookmark. You cannot see it yet but you can feel it — the warm amber of the kitchen is warmer at the bottom of the composition where the oven is doing its work, the smell of extraordinary pastry and lemon curd present in the composition as a quality of light.
The pie will be extraordinary. It is always extraordinary. This is Amelia Bedelia's gift and her answer to everything and her complete and sufficient justification for everything that happened to the drapes.

✦ PAIRS BEAUTIFULLY WITH
Our Amelia Bedelia pie bookmark — the chaos and the resolution, the list and the pie, the problem and the answer. Both bookmarks together tell the complete Amelia Bedelia story and make the perfect gift set for every Amelia Bedelia lover of every age. See our shop for the companion pie bookmark.

✦ ALSO IN OUR SHOP
This bookmark is part of our Beloved Children's Classics Collection alongside our Frog and Toad bookmark and our Mouse Soup bookmark honoring Arnold Lobel — the great children's books that are for children and for every adult who has ever been a child who loved them. See our shop for the complete collection.

✦ SHIPPING
Ships within 3 to 5 business days. Arrives in a kraft envelope so your bookmark comes to you simply and beautifully — ready to use immediately. We put it in the envelope. We did not draw on the envelope. We want to be clear about this. We took no other actions with the envelope that could be considered alternative interpretations of putting something in an envelope. The bookmark is inside. The chicken is fine.

✦ ABOUT OUR SHOP
Every bookmark in our shop is designed and produced professionally by us — made with care in our own studio and printed on premium materials we stand behind completely. We are a small passionate operation and we treat every order like it matters because it does.
We are committed to five star service on every single order — from the moment you click to the moment your bookmark arrives at your door flat and perfect and ready to live inside your favorite book. If anything is ever less than exactly right please reach out and we will make it right immediately. We respond to every message promptly and we mean it — real people, real responses, no automated runaround.
Thank you for supporting a small independent bookmark maker. It means everything to us and we do not take it for granted. We hope this bookmark finds exactly the right book and exactly the right reader.

Michelle and Julie
The Luna and Loom 📚