Amelia Bedelia Dances Off

Reviewed by: Joanne Libby - Freeport Community Library, Freeport, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: February 3, 2016

Review

This is a short chapter book about the young Amelia Bedelia written by the nephew of the original author of the Amelia Bedelia series. In this story, Amelia Bedelia is given a gift of dance lessons and she is not sure she will like it. With encouragement from her mother and Aunt Wanda she goes to the classes and makes new friends and finds she enjoys learning to dance, even ballet. There is a lot of action in the book and at least 8 different dances are taught and described. It is multicultural in the dance concepts, but not so much with the characters in the book. There are at least 2 illustrations per 2 page spread including diagrams of the dance steps. The double meanings of phrases are not dwelled on as the story progresses and I think they would go over most of the readers' heads, but there is an addendum that explains these at the end of the book. An example would be PUT YOUR BEST FOOT FORWARD means DO YOUR VERY BEST. These are nicely illustrated and are a nice complement to the book. On page 107 I was a bit puzzled by the paragraph- "Amelia Bedelia could see that (the) driver was wearing a jacket as well as a shirt and from the look on his face, he wasn't her Aunt Wanda's pal. "Here comes trouble" she said to Gracie." I inserted the THE and there was no other mention in the book about why the bus driver was not Aunt Wanda's pal and there was no trouble that came along either. Overall it was a nice story about family and friendship and I think it would be enjoyed by emerging readers and their parents.

Overall Book Score: good