Little Valley woman publishes top-selling children’s book

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By Deb Everts

LITTLE VALLEY — Local educator Amy Bedell recently self-published her first book, “She Will,” sending a message of love and acceptance for disability and special needs inclusion within its pages.

The author dedicated her children’s book about compassion and kindness to her cousin, Julie Mendell, who was her inspiration. Bedell said her cousin was born with a major disability and passed away at age 48 about two years ago.

But while she was here, Mendell had the love and ability to overcome what others may see as obstacles. She never let anything get her down, Bedell said, and she taught others that nothing was going to stand in her way.

“When Julie passed away, I actually wrote the entire book in my notes app on my cell phone that night. My feelings and emotions just flowed and came out,” she said. “I had no intention to write a book but my thought was, ‘I can’t believe the world is not going to know Julie.’

This book is Julie.”

Released Jan. 7, Bedell said the book, including a photo of Julie, isn’t about one specific disability. It looks at all disabilities and how children should be taught to react to that child, or even an adult, in a compassionate and kind manner.

“The book is meant to be a conversation piece between a parent and their younger child. Although older children can read it independently, they are not going to get much from it unless an adult explains the situation and asks them questions about what they would do,” she said.

“The story brings out the questions children might have, but also answers those questions,” Bedell continued. “It also touches on disabilities as indicated in the opening text, ‘She was born, but not as expected.’ I never say what disability Julie was born with and the story says nothing could slow her down or stop her.”

Throughout the book, the reader will see various children who have disabilities. Bedell said every child should see themselves in picture books because there are few books that feature children with disabilities. She said this book is meant to start a conversation with children that asks “Do you see children like this in school?” and “How do you react?”

“Showing compassion and kindness is meant for both children with disabilities and without disabilities because, if you look through the book, we’re looking at inclusion,” she

Looking at the rest of the world, Bedell said school is the only place where inclusion doesn’t always happen. She said there are no separate lines in a store for people with abilities and disabilities, and restaurant menus have pictures and words.

“Inclusion involves people of all ability levels,” she said. “Our schools are the only place where inclusion doesn’t happen all the time.”

Bedell said Julie is the reason she is a special education teacher at the Gail N. Chapman Elementary School in Randolph. She resides in Little Valley with her husband, Craig, and their 7-year-old twins, Alex and Grace. She said the students where she works are going through inclusion classrooms, also called mainstreaming.

“Sometimes the kids don’t know how to handle situations,” she said. “If we are looking at our inclusion classrooms, we should show more compassion to the children who may have a disability.”

Bedell said she started the process of self-publishing her book in August with Bear With Us Productions located in the United Kingdom. She got to pick from three illustrators who work for the company, choosing illustrator Nathaly Carvalho based on their artwork samples.

Many of the characters throughout the book represent children that Bedell has had in her classroom and others she has been acquainted with. Since she had something in mind as to what the illustrations might look like in her book, she sent pictures of Julie to Carvalho to give her ideas for each page and was very happy with the final results.

On the book’s dedication page Bedell wrote, “This book is dedicated to the kindest woman I’ve ever met, my cousin Julie Mendell. Julie never judged a person based on a disability or ability. She treated everyone with the kindness she thought they deserved.”

Bedell hopes the book will teach children to treat others, especially those with disabilities, with the kindness they deserve — just as Julie did.

“I encourage you to do at least one kind thing a day and, when you do, please think of our Julie,” she added. Her book, “She Will,” is available on

Amazon in paperback and Kindle. According to Bedell, the book was ranked No. 1 on Amazon under new releases in Special Education. As of Jan. 16, the book is ranked #290 overall in on Amazon.

Bedell said she’s amazed that her little book written out on the notes app on her cell phone jumped to the number one spot in such a short time.

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