Amy Sheldon

Question:

  While I love your Alice books and have read everyone of them to this date, I have a question about one of the characters. I just finished reading ‘Alice in Charge’ last week and I loved the plot (will definitely get the next book when it comes out),  but I just wanted to know where you came up with the character of Amy. She seems to represent people with disabilities in the book, and I wanted to know where the whole idea of her came from, did you know someone with a disability in your childhood or now? And, this may be too specific of a question, but what disability does she have exactly? Because I know others with disabilities and I can’t seem to think of what disability she might have, one who asks a lot of questions (the way she’s described in the book). Thanks for taking the time to read this message. 🙂

Phyllis replied:

There is no label for Amy.  I’ve known a number of people with disabilities, some of them physical, some mental, some a combination, some social or neurological…  I’ve never pinned Amy down, as she represents anyone who is out of the mainsteam, and particularly people with vague disabilities that even doctors can’t agree on.