MERRY CHRISTMAS, AMELIA BEDELIA

Amelia Bedelia, possessor of the state of the art in literal minds, is back, this time ""helping"" Mr. and Mrs. Rogers prepare for Christmas. Amelia bakes a date cake with dates from the calendar. She ""trims"" the Christmas tree with scissors and stuffs the stockings with homemade turkey stuffing. When asked to hang the balls on the tree, she does: basketballs, footballs, tennis balls. Though she rallies, she seems, at first, to have only a hazy memory of Santa Claus--hard to believe even for Amelia Bedelia. The illustrations are adequate, but rather listless compared to the perky text. (Exceptions: the drawing of Mrs. Roberts sputtering and of tough Aunt Myra, who prefers things Amelia Bedelia's way, beaming in her sensible shoes.) A funny and comforting story about a person who does things wrong a lot of the time, yet is enormously lovable. Not for children who will be distressed that Santa Claus is Mr. Rogers dressed up.