Len Reid Banks (Review Of Play Ball, Amelia Bedelia)

For a short period back in the early days of social media when we all congregated until late in the evening on the porches of Myspace, I created a profile for Len Reid Banks, the fictitious brother of Lynne Reid Banks, author of The Indian In The Cupboard series. The setup was that Len was a bitter, old hillbilly (even though, by all accounts, Lynne is most definitely a lovely London-born British author) who claimed that Lynne stole all of his ideas and ruined them. And, as an outlet for his rage, Len reviewed children's books.

Len's Myspace profile quickly picked up followers, some who knew it was a joke and some who didn't. So, it was a lovely place filled with equal parts humor and angsty confusion. Alas, the angsty confusion won over and the page was removed by Myspace administrators before I was able to back up anything. 

The following review of Play Ball, Amelia Bedelia is all that remains of the mighty bitter mustiness that was once
​Len Reid Banks:

"Amelia Bedelia is first and foremost an idiot.

This should be known before reading any book about her. If you want your children to be idiots, then please, give them this book. But, I hope most parents still want their kids to grow up and be responsible citizens and diligent workers who know, for instance, that if someone in a baseball game tells you to, “run home,” you should run to home plate and not to your actual home-Amelia!

I’d never hire a maid who was an idiot. Know why? Because they may clean all the dirt and dust out your home, but they’ll still leave piles and piles of invisible stupidity all over. And you know what? Stupidity’s contagious. And there ain’t no idiot vaccinations. Ain’t no stupid pill. Ain’t no dumb medicine. Ya just stay that way. And ya never learn, ya never vote, ya never go anywheres."