DR. AMY MOY 

Pens a Picture Book Inspired by Her Extraordinary Daughter

by Melissa Fales

Evie is a little girl who loves singing at the top of her lungs, who can often be found dancing to Bruno Mars’ hit “Uptown Funk,” and who was born with Down syndrome. Her mom, Dr. Amy Moy, recently released her debut children’s book, The Polka-Dotted Penguin—a story inspired by Evie—about how what makes us different makes us special. “Evie has changed my life for the better and set me on a journey of meeting cool people, advocating for people with disabilities, and even writing a children’s book about inclusion and kindness,” says Moy.     

The Polka-Dotted Penguin is Moy’s first book, but it isn’t the first time 7-year-old Evie has inspired her to write. “When Evie was first born, I started blogging at evietheextraordinary.com about our journey,” says Moy. “That is where my sometimes raw, sometimes whimsical, and sometimes advocating self really shared the start to our life with a little girl with Down syndrome.... If the readers want to know more about it, we welcome them to read our blog.”  

Moy, an optometrist, works in a community health center operated by Boston Children’s Hospital. “My passion is to help people who don’t always have access to quality care to feel cared for as a whole person and not just their eyes,” she says. Moy is also a teacher at Boston’s New England College of Optometry.  “I get to do all sorts of things like teach students how to do eye exams, give lectures, design training modules for our doctors, and develop eye clinics in health centers,” she says. 

During the early part of the pandemic, Moy got the idea to write about a polka-dotted egg that stood out from the other penguin eggs. “Fun fact,” says Moy. “I forgot at first that Daddy penguins are the ones who sit on the egg for most of the time, and I started out with Mommy penguins sitting with the eggs and chatting about how different Dottie’s egg looked from the rest.”

Evie loves going to school and winning people over with her outgoing personality. “We call her the mayor of the school because everyone says hi to her,” says Moy. It’s become a tradition for Moy to send Evie to school with a special book to share with her classmates on World Down Syndrome Day, celebrated annually on March 21. “I’d run out of books that are cute, have big enough pages, and spread the message of kindness and inclusion that are most relevant to Evie,” Moy says. “So, I decided to keep working on my polka-dotted egg story.”

The Polka-Dotted Penguin begins with a group of penguins remarking about the one polka-dotted egg that looks so much different from the other penguin eggs. When the polka-dotted egg hatches, the baby penguin also looks different from the other baby penguins. “Daddy and Mommy Penguin lovingly name their new baby Dottie,” says Moy. “She moves a little slower, has trouble speaking, and looks slightly different from the rest with her polka-dotted head.” As Dottie gets older, her peers have a variety of responses to her. “She has friends who love her, and she runs into other penguins who point out her differences. Over time, the other penguins come to understand that Dottie has more in common with them than not. “The book ends with the message that everyone needs a little help sometimes to be included.” 

Moy says she sees The Polka-Dotted Penguin as “a conversation-starter” for families. “There are questions for young kids, such as asking how Dottie is different from the others and moving to questions about who they have noticed is different, and how they themselves are different,” she says. “For older kids, questions such as how they might feel to be different in some ways and asking how they are kind to kids who may be seen as very different, generate some real-life discussions.”

Response to The Polka-Dotted Penguin and the questions raised in the book have been heartwarming for Moy. “I did a reading for elementary kids at our church, and I was so impressed with their responses to these questions,” she says. “Some pointed out how they themselves are unique, others shared how they could be kind, and some older kids explained ways that they reach out to kids who may not have as many friends because of their differences.”

The story of Dottie, The Polka-Dotted Penguin, has also been known to bring out the best in young readers. Moy says she knows of a teacher who read the book to a second-grade class where fully half of the students have individualized education plans and other accommodations. “After reading The Polka-Dotted Penguin, she said that the neurotypical kids started treating the kids with special needs with more kindness and patience,” says Moy. “They really heard the message of celebrating differences and understanding that each person is unique and great in their own way. I couldn’t have asked for a better result. I almost cried when I heard the change in the classroom’s culture. It was exactly why I wrote the book, especially so that my own daughter would be celebrated and included in school.”

During the pandemic, Moy and Evie ramped up their production of videos for their YouTube channel, Evie the Extraordinary. “My overarching goal with this channel is to increase the representation of children with disabilities on YouTube,” says Moy. “We are doing better as a society in including kids with disabilities in marketing, such as on Target or Old Navy ads, or with the show Born This Way about adults with Down syndrome, but we can do so much more. We are halfway to the number of subscribers needed to become eligible for YouTube Kids, so please subscribe!” 

A Kickstarter campaign to “sponsor” new parents of a baby with Down syndrome with a copy of The Polka-Dotted Penguin and a stuffed Dottie the penguin exceeded Moy’s goal. “I was so touched that many people donated,” she says. “I can’t wait for all these kids to have a cute reminder of how unique and wonderful they are, and how they can be kind and inclusive.” 

For more information about Amy Moy and The Polka-Dotted Penguin, visit polkadottedpenguin.com. To purchase Dottie t-shirts and other merchandise, visit redbubble.com/people/ciderdonuts/shop.

Check out Moy’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/c/EvietheExtraordinary/videos.