Abigail Rayner Archives -

ILLUSTRATOR OF

VIOLET AND THE CRUMBS:
A Gluten-Free Adventure

Written by Abigail Rayner

(North/South Books; $17.99, Ages 4-8)

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Success has never tasted so good!

The dynamic duo of I Am a Thief by Abigail Rayner (author) and Molly Ruttan (illustrator) have created a new picture book sure to spark conversations about this timely issue.

Violet used to love birthday parties, but now that she has celiac disease, she’s not allowed to eat pizza, cake, or anything else with gluten. Violet feels alone until she discovers that some animals have dietary restrictions as well. While standing up for her animal friends, she realizes she can do the same for herself. And when it’s time to celebrate Violet’s birthday, there isn’t a single gluten-containing crumb in sight!

Filled with pluck and humor, this informative story provides a great opportunity to discuss this increasingly common condition with children who have celiac disease and gluten intolerance as well as those who know people who have it and are seeking to learn more about it.

This book has been approved by the Celiac Disease Foundation.

Watch the trailer and hear about illustrator Molly Ruttan’s experiences working on Violet on the North/South blog.

Click here to find Violet teacher resources including activities and coloring pages.

INTERVIEW WITH MOLLY RUTTAN

Molly Ruttan: Before I start, I want to thank you for featuring me on your amazing blog, Ronna! Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to share my new book!

GoodReadsWithRonna: I’m happy to be able to showcase you and your artwork here today and I appreciate that, in the midst of all your promotion, you made time to answer these questions.

GRWR: What would you say, as an author-illustrator with several books under your belt, is the biggest challenge when illustrating someone else’s manuscript as compared to your own? Is the approach the same?

MR: As an author-illustrator, the process of working with the text and the pictures at the same time feels very natural to me. When I work with a manuscript someone else has written, I shift my process a bit. Jumping into a manuscript that someone else has written is like diving into the deep water, as opposed to wading out there. But the deep dive is part of the joy, and as I work on mapping out the book and making the little dummies I begin to develop a solid connection to it. The connection becomes even stronger as I go through the process of finding the characters. By the time I have all the characters and their setting, and I have begun the full-size book dummy, I have become so familiar with the story that the process feels very much the same from that point forward. Of course, not being able to touch the words can sometimes be frustrating, but I have found that often it will push me to dig for visual solutions that are extremely satisfying to find.

GRWR: Was there much research involved about celiac disease before you could begin your sketches?

MR: I didn’t have to do a lot of research about celiac disease beforehand because, being somewhat gluten-intolerant myself, I knew enough about it to get started. Abigail Rayner, being the author and celiac-disease expert, reviewed my drawings along the way and made helpful suggestions. Our editor worked closely with the Celiac Disease Foundation, including sending the final draft of the book to them for review. And since NorthSouth Books is an international publisher and a German version of the book is also being released in DACH (Germany, Austria & Switzerland,) European gluten-free guidelines were also verified. For my own part, the end pages required the most research ahead of time, as I wanted to depict the grains and different plants as accurately & specifically as possible.

Ruttan Violet and the Crumbs COVER German & English 2-up — English and German covers, Violet and the Crumbs: A Gluten-Free Adventure written by Abigail Rayner and illustrated by Molly Ruttan, NorthSouth Books ©2022.

GRWR: How would you describe the particular technique that you use for illustrating? Please tell us how you achieved the look of the gluten clouds that accompany the crumbs!

MR: I would describe my technique as a wonderfully messy collaboration between traditional and digital media! I work with charcoal and pastel on watercolor and other papers. I use a charcoal pencil for the drawings, pastels for the color, and charcoal stencils for the gradation, shading and textures. Naturally, charcoal and pastel dust gets everywhere as I scan (I don’t spray my drawings because of a slight allergy to the fixative). Then the less-messy part of the process starts as I wipe down my scanner and paint digitally in Photoshop. I love the blend of charcoal linework and texture with the pastel color & texture I can create this way. Sometimes I also add liquid acrylic washes and texture as well. I love working traditionally but I also love all the options working digitally provides.

To create the gluten clouds that accompany the crumbs throughout the book, I used a slightly advanced photoshop technique. I scanned in all the stenciled swirly shapes I had created with charcoal-like I usually do, but then I colorized them using the channels. I love this technique – it gives me incredible flexibility because I can make the charcoal any color I want! And I love how the pastel and charcoal textures merge.

GRWR: What gave you the idea to make the evil gluten crumbs into characters?

MR: What—do you mean to tell me crumbs aren’t really alive?? Haha, seriously though… the idea to make the crumbs into characters was a collaboration. There was an art note in the manuscript suggesting “evil crumbs moving between food items via hands”, and my wonderful editor, (who I had worked with before on my first book with Abigail Rayner, I am a Thief!) remembered how I had animated the jewel I had done for that book and suggested I could do something similar with the crumbs in this book. What the crumbs looked like was obviously up to me, and I decided it would be more fun to make them grumpy, argumentative and disgruntled rather than straight up evil– I wanted to have more variety of expression, and I didn’t want them to be too scary.

Ruttan Crumbs close-up — Interior page from Violet and the Crumbs: A Gluten-Free Adventure written by Abigail Rayner and illustrated by Molly Ruttan, NorthSouth Books ©2022.

GRWR: Did you always imagine Violet in a super-hero type outfit?

MR: In the text, Violet “takes desperate measures to defy the crumbs at school”, and there was an art note suggesting that she makes some sort of ridiculous protective suit. Since I had the idea to make crumb “clouds”, I gave her a suit based on rain gear, including an umbrella. But I felt something was still missing—so in my doodles, I spontaneously added a cape, and Violet’s superhero avatar sprung into being! I loved this solution because it freed me to play with her as that identity as she helps her animal friends. It also perfectly emphasized her heroic journey. I often find that the spontaneous solutions that come to me through drawing are the most fun and rewarding!

Ruttan Violet Feels Safe — Interior spread from Violet and the Crumbs: A Gluten-Free Adventure written by Abigail Rayner and illustrated by Molly Ruttan, NorthSouth Books ©2022.

GRWR: You capture the expressions on Violet’s face and her body language so well. Does this process take a long time until you feel you get it right?

MR: Some drawings fall into place and others take a long time, but I usually get the gist of what I want right away in sketches, and then refine the expressions & poses when I make final drawings. When I’m drawing, I catch myself unconsciously making faces that match the expressions I’m drawing – this is when I’m grateful that I work alone, haha! I like getting into the position and acting out what I’m trying to draw too. It helps me feel what the characters are experiencing and helps the drawing of it.

GRWR: Were the beautiful and info-filled illustrated endpapers your idea? It’s great how in the front you depict foods containing gluten and in the back, you show which grains, starches, or flours can be part of a gluten-free diet.

MR: Thank you! I really enjoyed illustrating the end pages! I knew from the beginning that there would be back-matter on the back end pages – originally it was one page for the “About Celiac disease”, and a spread for a recipe and the rest of the information. When my editor saw my sketches, she suggested we would drop the recipe and spread out all the information across the two end-page spreads. I loved this idea, and we decided it would be fun to separate the gluten and gluten-free information to the front and back spreads, just the way the kids separated the food on the picnic table!

Ruttan Front end-pages — Endpapers from Violet and the Crumbs: A Gluten-Free Adventure written by Abigail Rayner and illustrated by Molly Ruttan, NorthSouth Books ©2022.

GRWR: Can you share with us any new projects you are working on?

MR: I recently submitted all the final art for my next author/illustrated book, Something Wild, published by Nancy Paulsen Books. It’s about stage fright—something I have battled my entire life. The book tells the story of a girl who loves to play her violin but is terrified of the upcoming recital. She imagines all kinds of wild things she wishes would happen to keep her from having to perform. It’s a subject very close to my heart and I’m excited about it! It comes out in a year—April 2023.

I’m currently illustrating another book which I’m also very excited about, written by Stacy Lynn Carroll, called The Yowlers, also published by Nancy Paulsen Books. It’s about a grumpy family who transforms as they experience the joys of goodwill and graciousness under the influence of new, happy neighbors. This book is slated for April 2024.

I also have a very active critique group that keeps me busy with sharing new ideas. I have one book almost ready to go back out on submission. My list of things to work on is always very long!

GRWR: And finally, can you offer aspiring illustrators any word of advice that you got as a beginning illustrator that has stayed with you over the years?

MR: I love the Oscar Wilde quote: “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.” As a twin, this quote has been particularly helpful for me in all aspects of life! But thinking of this as it applies to my own art has been—and continues to be—also very helpful. It goes along with what my wonderful teacher and mentor Marla Frazee once told our class—that often we tend to think that what comes easy for us isn’t valuable or legitimate because it’s easy. It is just the opposite! Not everyone finds doing whatever that is that you do, easy. Lean into what flows out of you, inspires you, and gives you joy.

GRWR: Thanks so much for all your great answers, Molly. It’s so fascinating to get inside the head of creators!

MR: You are so welcome!! And thank you so much, Ronna, for having me on your fantastic blog! I know you have been through a lot lately, and I really appreciate your taking the time to support me and my new book.

BUY THE BOOK

• Below is a link to order a signed copy from Molly’s local independent bookstore, Once Upon a Time. When ordering, be sure to write in the comments section that you want a signed copy. And if you’d like the book to be personalized, please include the name. The book also comes with a bookmark!

https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/book/9780735844858

• Here is the link to Simon & Schuster (which includes other links for purchasing as well)

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Violet-and-the-Crumbs-A-Gluten-Free-Adventure/Abigail-Rayner/9780735844858

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

Molly Ruttan grew up in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. She holds a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from the Cooper Union School of Art, New York. She currently lives, works, and creates art in the diverse and historic neighborhood of Echo Park in Los Angeles.

Her titles include her author/illustrator debut, The Stray, from Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin Random House, and I Am A Thief! along with Violet and the Crumbs by Abigail Rayner for NorthSouth Books. Molly has two additional titles forthcoming with Nancy Paulsen Books. She is represented by Rachel Orr at Prospect Agency.

http://www.prospectagency.com/

FIND MOLLY RUTTAN ONLINE

Website: www.mollyruttan.com

Facebook: Molly Ruttan

Instagram: mollyillo

Twitter: @molly_ruttan

See the cover reveal post here.

Cover Reveal for Picture Book Violet and the Crumbs: A Gluten-Free Adventure

June 28, 2021
goodreadswithronna
Ages 4-8, Cover Reveal, Illustrator interview, Juvenile Fiction

IT’S A BIRD

IT’S A PLANE,

NO, IT’S

VIOLET AND THE CRUMBS

SOARING INTO STORES NEXT SPRING ’22!

VIOLET AND THE CRUMBS:

A Gluten-Free Adventure

Written by Abigail Rayner

Illustrated by Molly Ruttan

(NorthSouth Books; $17.95, Ages 4-8)

VioletandtheCrumbs Cover-Reveal interview cover — Book cover for VIOLET AND THE CRUMBS written by Abigail Rayner and illustrated by Molly Ruttan. © Molly Ruttan, 2021 NorthSouth Books

In Stores on April 19, 2022

ISBN 9780735844858
Available now for preorder

Please support your favorite local independent bookshop!

MY REACTION:

It’s a cover reveal for the picture book Violet and The Crumbs and I’m so chuffed to be sharing it with you today.

I immediately loved the clever diagonal placement of Violet and her umbrella. My eyes easily followed the upward motion that expresses action and adventure. Violet’s smile radiates success and enjoyment, something readers will experience reading the book.

Molly’s signature charcoal linework and blends, along with her combination of muted and bright colors is something I’d recognize anywhere. And the texture in the art, along with the texture in the title font, enhances the visceral and overall presence of CRUMBS! And oh those crumbs! They really drive the point home.

INTERVIEW:

GoodReadsWithRonna: Hi Molly, what an honor to have you back here on the blog with your third book cover reveal and your second artistic pairing with author Abigail Rayner. She tackles some important topics in her stories, the first book being about stealing and this one about Celiac Disease. Can you recall how you felt when you were asked to work on this project?

Molly Ruttan: Thank you so much, Ronna! The honor is all mine. It is such a pleasure to be back with you on your wonderful blog. I so appreciate your time and support!

I was so excited when NorthSouth Books contacted me to work with Abigail Rayner again; I love the topics Abigail writes about. This book, about a girl (Violet) who has been newly diagnosed with celiac disease is especially meaningful for me, because I have a gluten intolerance myself, along with one of my kids. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first saw the manuscript. I wish so much that this book had been around when my daughter was little; I didn’t know a thing about celiac disease or gluten intolerance at the time– it would have saved us years of stomach aches.

GRWR: Regarding celiac disease, how much work did you have to do to make sure all the information depicted through your illustrations was accurate?

NorthSouth worked with the Celiac Disease Foundation and checked in with them many times along the way. In addition, Abigail Rayner (the author, whose daughter has celiac disease) is an expert on the subject! She had suggestions for some of the illustrations from her own experience; It was a wonderful collaboration! We also included charts on the end pages showing grains and foods that contained gluten, and commonly used grains, flours, and roots that were gluten-free. Illustrating these pages took a bit of visual research, as I had to be accurate with the drawings. It was fun, and I learned a lot!

GRWR: What are some significant elements you’d like to point out about the cover art? What impression did you aim to convey to potential readers?

MR: When I started sketches for the book, I thought a lot about how to visually indicate if food had gluten in it, since you really can’t be sure just from looking at it. I came up with the visual of swirly clouds with crumbs walking and flying around, and this motif is featured on the cover. In the story, Violet creates a costume to help protect herself from the crumbs from other children’s food at school—her own PPE, as it were! Since I had been drawing crumb “clouds”, I made her costume based on rain gear, including an umbrella. But I also included a cape, to show the heroic aspect of her journey and her Superhero attitude! The cover shows Violet in her gear, zooming up and bursting through the cloud of crumbs — she is smiling and clearly had her mind set on setting a victorious path. Since adhering to a gluten-free diet can be very difficult, especially for kids, I wanted the cover to be positive and optimistic.

GRWR: At the start of the interview I told you what I liked. Now please tell us what’s your favorite part about this cover?

MR: Well, of course I love Violet, she was wonderful to get to know as she came to life in my sketches and made her way through the book. But I also love how the stenciling of the crumb swirls came out, on the cover especially. Plus the crumbs are such odd and troublesome little critters, it was a delight bringing them to life, on the cover and throughout the book!

VioletandtheCrumbs int1 — Interior art from VIOLET AND THE CRUMBS written by Abigail Rayner and illustrated by Molly Ruttan. © Molly Ruttan, 2021 NorthSouth Books

GRWR: How did you achieve the texture in the illustration?

MR: I work with charcoal and pastel on textured watercolor paper. I use a charcoal pencil for the drawings, pastels for the color, and a technique involving the creation of charcoal stencils for the backgrounds, gradation, shading and effects. I scan all of this into PhotoShop. The result is layer upon layer of textured color pastel and charcoal, with some digital texture thrown in here & there. The final art is digital, but there is a lot of traditional media spreading itself all over every surface of my studio along the way! I love working in both traditional and digital media.

ABOUT THE STORY:

Violet used to love parties, but now that she has been diagnosed with celiac disease she’s not allowed to eat pizza, cake, or anything that contains even the tiniest trace of gluten. Violet feels alone until she discovers that some animals have dietary restrictions as well. While standing up for them, she wonders: what can she do to stand up for herself?

Abigail Rayner and Molly Ruttan (creators of I AM A THIEF!) bring pluck and humor to this informative story, sure to spark conversation about this increasingly commonly-diagnosed condition.

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR:

Molly Ruttan grew up in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. She holds a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from the Cooper Union School of Art, New York. She currently lives, works and creates art in the diverse and historic neighborhood of Echo Park in Los Angeles.

http://www.prospectagency.com/

FIND MOLLY RUTTAN ONLINE:

Website: www.mollyruttan.com

Facebook: Molly Ruttan

Instagram: mollyillo

Twitter: @molly_ruttan

Click here to read an interview with Molly about her previous book with Abigail Rayner, I Am a Thief.

I Am a Thief Book Review With a Guest Post by Illustrator Molly Ruttan

I AM A THIEF!
Written by Abigail Rayner
Illustrated by Molly Ruttan
(NorthSouth Books; $17.95, Ages 4-8)

Happy Book Birthday 🎂 🎈to I Am a Thief!, written by Abigail Rayner with art by Molly Ruttan, marking her illustrator debut.

I enjoyed hearing about this picture book’s artistic evolution when Molly was working on the illustrations (NOTE: We’re in the same picture book study group), but I hadn’t read the story or seen any sample spreads. What a thrill it’s been to finally read I Am a Thief! It’s a humorous, thoughtful, much needed tale about taking things, okay, STEALING things then facing the uncomfortable feeling of having done something wrong. Please read my review then get the inside scoop on illustrating the book by the artist herself, Molly Ruttan.

BOOK REVIEW:

★Starred Review – Kirkus

The main character in I Am a Thief, Eliza Jane Murphy, is a star student having racked up all kinds of achievements and accolades at school. But when temptation in the form of a “brilliant green” stone on display in her classroom shouts her name, she heeds the call and swipes said item. Regret and guilt set in immediately and Raynor does a great job in her prose by conveying how these feelings overwhelm Eliza. Molly’s images wonderfully depict how riddled with remorse poor Eliza is. It’s not easy to capture the raw emotion of guilt but Molly succeeds especially in the scene where the menacing gemstone weighs heavy on Eliza’s conscience as she tries to swing with her friends. The challenge now is that while it was easy to nick the stone without anyone seeing her, Eliza worries that she’ll get caught trying to put it back.

int spread1 IAmaThief — Interior spread from I Am a Thief! written by Abigail Rayner with illustrations by Molly Ruttan, NorthSouth Books © 2019.

The awful feelings follow her home. She proceeds to ask everyone if they’ve ever stolen anything. Her dad exclaims, “Never!” though his facial expression says otherwise as it appears he’s about to take a slice of cake from the fridge. Eliza’s mom says she took a magnet once, and even Grandpa George, Nana Iris and her dog James, the sausage thief, admit they’re not completely innocent.

Molly’s hilarious WANTED posters depicting all the guilty family members begin to get crowded with each page turn as Eliza realizes that almost everyone at one time or another has taken something whether it’s as small as a sugar packet or as big in Eliza’s mind as her theft of the stone.

int spread2 IAmaThief — Interior spread from I Am a Thief! written by Abigail Rayner with illustrations by Molly Ruttan, NorthSouth Books © 2019.

The part that will especially please readers is when Eliza returns the stone to her teacher and, rather than chastising her student, tells her she’s brave. Owning up to her misdeed and its possible consequences takes guts. Here Eliza realizes that this one bad thing doesn’t define who she is nor should it. Her unburdening heals her and her “heart started singing again.”

I Am a Thief provides parents, caregivers and teachers an opportunity to explore with children the ramifications of taking things when they don’t belong to you, who ends up hurting the most when something is stolen, and how to right the wrongs we may do. I’m glad this book is out in the universe because it’s going to help a lot of families comfortably and honestly approach this important topic in a really relatable way. In fact, this clever and creative pairing of prose and pictures is likely to get you thinking about the behavior you’re modeling for kids the next time you go to grab a few packets of sugar at the coffee shop.

GUEST POST:

Hi Ronna,

It’s so exciting to be a part of your fantastic blog! Thank you so much for having me!

I Am a Thief! by Abigail Rayner is my debut as an illustrator as you mentioned above. It came to me from NorthSouth Books via my wonderful agent, Rachel Orr. The second I read it I knew I wanted to jump in.

One thing that immediately hooked me into the story was actually not the obvious. I have no real memory of ever stealing anything when I was a kid—I was much too shy and intimidated by the world to ever step out of line! (Although I probably did steal a crayon or two from a restaurant!) But more so, I’m an identical twin, and the question of identity has always been fascinating to me. For Eliza to impulsively take a sparkling stone to keep for herself, and then to allow that stone, and that act, to redefine how she sees herself, is to me an incredibly interesting bit of human nature. I was hooked, and I decided to illustrate her identity crisis alongside her moral crisis.

I decided to have the green gemstone transform along with Eliza’s moral transformation. I started by showing it as a separate character (“The stone made me do it”) to a beautiful object (“I knew what I had to do”) to finally a lens in which Eliza could see a faceted world (“Everyone is a lot of things!”) I love crystals, and have held and admired many. It wasn’t too far of a leap for me to imagine that a crystal could encompass a journey.

Int art IAmaThief — Interior artwork from I Am a Thief! written by Abigail Rayner with illustrations by Molly Ruttan, NorthSouth Books © 2019.

Regarding her identity crisis, I decided to use the imagery of the cat burglar, because this image is an archetype and is immediately recognizable. Eliza’s perception of what a thief looks like would most likely be this—the Halloween costume version! Besides, it was really fun to draw!

As I was figuring all this out, I was filling my sketchbooks with notes and drawings. The story is full of characters, some written and some implied, and it was an amazing thing to watch Eliza and her whole extended family, her teacher and her classmates appear on the paper and take on a life of their own.

Abigail Rayner is a brilliant author and I can’t wait to see what she writes next. Hopefully I’ll have another chance to be her partner in crime!

BIO:

Molly Ruttan’s illustration debut, I AM A THIEF! by Abigail Rayner from NorthSouth Books is available September 3, 2019, and has earned a starred Kirkus review. Molly’s author-illustrator debut, THE STRAY, is forthcoming from Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin Random House in May 2020. Molly Ruttan grew up in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, and holds a BFA in graphic design from the Cooper Union School of Art. She lives, works and creates art in the diverse and historic neighborhood of Echo Park in Los Angeles, California. Find Molly online at www.mollyruttan.com, on Twitter @molly_ruttan and on Instagram @mollyillo

A HUGE thanks to Molly for stopping by to share her unique I Am a Thief! artistic journey. It’s fascinating to get an inside perspective and I know it will add to everyone’s appreciation of this terrific new picture book.