Amelia Bedelia

 

by Peggy Parish, Fritz Siebel (Illustrator)

Amelia Bedelia is a housekeeper who takes her instructions quite literally.

Reading the list of chores that her employer has left her, Amelia begins with "Dust the furniture." How odd, Amelia thinks to herself.

"At my house we undust the furniture." Nonetheless, she dutifully locates the "Dusting Powder" in the bathroom, and proceeds to sprinkle it all over the living-room furniture and floor.

Next she is asked to "Draw the drapes when the sun comes in." So of course, Amelia sits down with a sketchpad and gives it her best shot.

Children love reading about the antics of silly Amelia Bedelia for myriad reasons. It's an early reader book, so children in primary grades can take satisfaction in reading the book on their own.

But, even more thrilling, children who are 6 and older can successfully interpret the figurative meaning behind most adult idioms.

Being told to "keep an eye on the cat," for example, might compel some preschoolers to stick their eyeballs on a cat's face, eliciting peals of laughter from know-it-all grownups. But older children know better, and they love the fact that they know better.

Young readers will find this bumblingly charming, eager-to-please housekeeper as irresistible as Amelia Bedelia's employers do.

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한국어도 마찬가지겠지만, 영어는 한 단어에 여러가지 뜻을 더 많이 내포되어있는 것 같아요.

'아멜리아 베델리아' 책은 그런 점을 꼬집어서 만든 책이랍니다.

예를 들어 Draw에는 우리가 알고 있는 '그리다'라는 뜻도 있지만, '걷다(묶다)'라는 뜻도 있거든요.
그래서 '아멜리아'는 커튼을 묶는 대신에 커튼을 그리지요.

암튼... 읽으면서도 저도 아멜리아를 충분히 이해할수 있었어요. ^^

저의 영어선생님의 여자친구가 가장 좋아하는 캐릭터라고 하더군요.

그럴만해요. 엉뚱하지만 무척 사랑스러운 캐릭터거든요.

Riddles and More Riddles!

by Bennett Cerf, Debbie Palen (Illustrator)

"Why do birds fly south?"
"Because it is too far to walk."

Riddles and More Riddles! contains funny, laugh-out-loud riddles that kids will love to read and retell over and over again!

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수수께끼 같은 이야기를 다루었어요.

한국어로도 이해하기 힘든 내용을 영어로 이해하려니 골치가 아팠습니다..^^;;

Madeline and the Bad Hat

  

by Ludwig Bemelmans

One day the Spanish ambassador moves into the Parisian house next door to Miss Clavel, Madeline, and her 11 classmates.

And, His Excellency has a boy! Pepito, as he is named, is not just any boy: according to Madeline, he is a "bad hat"--for starters, he's equipped with an irksome slingshot, he "ghosts," and he boasts. And when Miss Clavel gives him a box of tools to function as an "outlet for his energy," he makes a guillotine for the cook's chickens. ("He ate them ROASTED, GRILLED, AND FRITO! Oh what a horror was PEPITO.")

Children will love Ludwig Bemelmans's jaunty rhymes and simple, evocative drawings, and the ferocity with which the feisty Madeline suspects, condemns, and rebuffs the boisterous new boy neighbor. In the end, however, everything comes out right, and we, along with Miss Clavel, can relax.

Madeline in London

by Ludwig Bemelmans

What on earth could make Miss Clavel, Madeline, and her 11 nameless classmates leave belle Paris for the tea-and-crumpeted, sometimes trumpeted city of London?

A mission to cheer up the lonely, thin, increasingly despondent Pepito, son of the Spanish ambassador, who had to move away from his house next door to Madeline's in Paris.

In their efforts to cheer him up, and for a birthday surprise, Miss Clavel and the girls buy him a retired horse.

All is fine until the horse gallops off at the sound of the trumpet to take his place at the head of the queen's Life Guards (his occupation before retiring). As readers whoosh through busy London scenes, we forget the horse has had nothing to eat all day.

Upon his return to Pepito's home, he eats everything in sight: "The gardener dropped his garden hose. / There wasn't a daisy or a rose. / 'All my work and all my care / For nought! Oh, this is hard to bear.'" Meanwhile, as the horse is passed out from exhaustion and overeating, Pepito's mother says he has to go. And so Madeline and the others take the horse home with them to Paris, where "They brushed his teeth and gave him bread, / And covered him up / and put him to bed."

Ludwig Bemelmans charms us again with the uniquely skewed logic and matter-of-fact madness of childhood that young readers will adore.

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매델라인(Madeline)은 미국에서 애니(Anny)만큼이나 유명한 고아 소녀예요.

그녀에 관한 동화가 많이 있구요.

재미있게도 제 영어과외 선생님의 여동생 미들네임과 퍼스트 네임이 메델라인 애니라네요..ㅎㅎ

왜 그렇게 지었는지 모르지만 아무래도 놀림을 받긴하나봐요.

**

Pepito moved to London. He was lonely and he missed Madeline.
His fateher invited Madeline and her friends to their house.

Madeline and her friends prepared Pepito's Birthday present.
It is a horse, becaus he wanted a horse.Madeline and Pepito rode the horse.
They had so mush fun.

But then Pepito's mother said "The horse has to go", because the horse has eaten the neighborhood's garden.
So Madeline will take care of the horse.

Arthur's Pet Business

by Marc Brown

Arthur's determination to prove he is responsible enough to have a puppy brings him a menagerie of animals to care for.

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아서라는 캐릭터는 미국에서 많이 알려진 캐릭터예요.

여러가지 주제를 다룬 TV시리즈와 책도 많습니다.

저는 처음에 아서 캐릭터가 곰인줄 알았는데... 쥐라네요... -.-;;

좋아하는 캐릭터는 아니지만, 익숙해서인지 읽기는 좋은거 같아요.