We all know that being nice can transform someone’s day. How about their life? Wait until you see today’s picture book.  It’s brilliant!

Molly Ruttan is an author/illustrator of children’s books who has visited my blog a few times before. She lives in the historic neighborhood of Echo Park in Los Angeles, where she and her husband raised three talented (now adult) children. Molly enjoys weekly meetings with her Artist Collective The Mullberries, singing in a community choir and playing her drums. Her life is full of art, music, family, friends and all kinds of pets and urban animals—even wild parrots!

Molly’s titles include her author/illustrated books The Stray and Something Wild; and she has illustrated I Am A Thief! and Violet and the Crumbs: A Gluten-Free Adventure, (both written by Abigail Rayner) as well as The Yowlers by Stacy Lynne Carroll. You can learn more about her at her website or follow her on Instagram or Facebook.

THE YOWLERS is an incredible addition to Molly’s resume.  While she didn’t write this one, her illustrations are stunning and feel quite different from anything she’s done (yet somehow still feel exactly like her!).  In this story, we meet a family of monsters.  They aren’t very nice, even to each other, and are surrounded by rain clouds.  But when a new family moves in next door and smiles at them, or invites the kids to play, things begin to change.  The changes are what make this book.  Did I mention how brilliant this book is?  I don’t want to spoil anything, but trust me when I say that this is a book you will want to study to see just how it accomplishes SO much!

Welcome back Molly!

Molly: Hi Jena! Before we begin, I want to congratulate you on your new book, Kauai’s Call! I just bought my very own copy. I love how the inspiration for this sweet story struck you during a trip to Hawai’i! Thank you for having me back on your blog to talk about my illustration for my new book The Yowlers. It’s always such a pleasure to be here!

Me: Aww!  Thank you. Your illustration for The Yowlers is delightfully different from some of your previous illustration work (and yet it all still feels so perfectly you!).  What drew you to illustrating this project?

Molly: This book is about the power of kindness, and in the Yowlers case, how being nice can be transformational – literally!

I love being able to bring fantastical elements to a manuscript with my art, and this manuscript’s transformation message presented a delightful invitation to do that— how could I say no?! Plus I saw an opportunity to have fun creating expressive characters and putting them in humorous situations to play off the grumpiness described in the text.    

Once I started, my intention quickly became to create enough humor with my illustration that it would lift the story and be visually entertaining while delivering this message. I wanted the book to be a humorous way to talk to kids about the importance of friendliness and kindness, and how it can transform you as well as the people around you in a positive way. I hope that when kids and their grownups finish the book they are feeling good, smiling and inspired! It’s something I strive for in every book I write and/or illustrate.

Interior spread from The Yowlers, written by Stacy Lynn Carroll and illustrated by Molly Ruttan. Nancy Paulsen Books, Penguin Random House ©2024.

Me: I think they will!  Kirkus aptly compared your work in this story to Mercer Mayer’s. Was there an art note that said this family should be monsters or was that your idea?

Molly: There was an art note suggesting that the characters start out as monsters and transform, and I became totally inspired by that idea. But it was challenging too—it took me a while to land on what kind of monsters they would be… would they be hairy? Scaley? Have numerous arms or eyes? Then, there were five members of this family… would they all be the same kind of monster? The possibilities were endless! I finally landed on Ogre-type “monsters”, because I wanted them to stay recognizable through their transformations, and also to be able to exist in a human environment. I could play with their clothes, body shape, skin color, hair, horns & teeth this way, to give them their individual characteristics.

Interior spread from The Yowlers, written by Stacy Lynn Carroll and illustrated by Molly Ruttan. Nancy Paulsen Books, Penguin Random House ©2024.

Me: I adored what you did with transformation of the characters throughout the book (though I admit it took me a little bit to catch on).  I don’t want to spoil anything for others, but what gave you the idea to do that?  What parts of the illustrations were uniquely your idea in this story?

Molly: The manuscript helped me figure out how the characters would transform because each member of the family changes at a different part in the story. In one case a character begins to transform, but then has a backslide on the next page! This led me to decide that they needed to change slowly, which I’m sure is why it took you a bit to catch on. Having the transformation be subtle allowed the illustration to support the emotional fluctuation in the text.

The main illustrative motif that was uniquely my idea (besides the character development) was the rain and the leaky ceiling. One of the first things I asked myself when I read the manuscript was “Why are they grumpy?” The song Raindrops Keep Fallin on my Head by Burt Bacharach and Hal David popped into my brain— the lyrics of which uses raindrops as a symbol for having the blues. It gave me the idea that in the Yowler’s world, it would be continuously raining—but only on them and only on their house. And of course, their roof leaks! When I thought of this it made me laugh out loud. I loved the idea that the rain with a leaky roof was both a reason to be grumpy and also symbolic of their mood.

Me: I love the variety of textures you used all throughout this.  Did you do anything different with your illustration approach for this book?  More traditional tools vs. digital, etc.?

Molly: I used the same illustration approach in this book as I have with all my others. I start with charcoal pencil drawings, which I scan into my computer. I create charcoal stencils for all the gradations and shading. Then I scan in all the pastel & painted colors, stencils & textures, and I digitally paint with all the elements, which creates multiple layers of different textures. So depending on the elements I’ve created for each book, the textures will be a bit different. I also experiment with various brushes in photoshop to change the nature of the painted strokes, and this can change from book to book too.

Me: I love the bunnies that run throughout the story, from the beginning to the end.  As I know you love animals and usually pick a species on purpose, I have to ask: why bunnies?  Is it because they are the perfect little agents of chaos for this particular story?  Or is there a deeper meaning?

Molly: Aww, thank you for noticing! I drew bunnies in Papa Yowler’s garden at the beginning of the book as one of the things that make him grumpy. At the end of the book, the text implies that even though the Yowlers are happy now, they can still be grumpy sometimes. In trying to think of something to illustrate that could still be making Papa grumpy, I realized that the bunnies were just sitting at the beginning of the book, eating carrots, waiting to come full circle! As you know, bunnies are very close to my heart— I have put a bunny in every book I’ve illustrated so far, (and Baby Yowler does in fact have a toy bunny!) but I wanted to give real bunnies a moment in the limelight, too. I love that you call them “perfect little agents of chaos”! — You are so right! For this particular story they do represent those little things in your life which can still get under your skin (or in your garden!) in spite of how happy or peaceful you feel.

Interior spread from The Yowlers, written by Stacy Lynn Carroll and illustrated by Molly Ruttan. Nancy Paulsen Books, Penguin Random House ©2024

Me: What is one thing that surprised you in illustrating this book?

Molly: One thing that surprises me every time I illustrate a book is how often ideas for details, and especially humor, comes to me as I’m drawing. For example, in The Yowlers there is a scene where Papa is up on a ladder trying to fix a leak in the ceiling. I started out thinking, OK, I’m going to draw a scene where Papa is trying to fix a leak. Then as I drew, I thought, OH, what if he’s nailing a piece of wood up there? Haha, that’s not going to fix a thing! And then more details came to me— OH, what if the container of nails is falling? As I continued, each character informed me how they felt, while I drew them. It surprises and delights me every time this happens.

Me:  I think this is perhaps the most fantastical book I’ve seen you illustrate so far, so it might seem obvious what sets it apart from your other books (but you might have a different take on that).  What is one of your favorite things about this story?

Molly: For The Yowlers, the family members were particularly amusing, with all their imperfections. My favorite thing about the process of drawing characters—figuring out what they look like, as well as using body language and facial expressions— is how it deepens their personalities and brings them to life. Grumpiness is such a rich emotion— crafting each family member’s reasons to be grumpy & ways they expressed it, while also making light of it, was truly a joy. I hope that kids and adults will feel the joy I felt as I created this book. Kindness is such an important thing to learn and to experience, and I hope this book helps spread it!

I love that.  Thank you so much for stoping by my blog today Molly.

Molly: It was a pleasure as always, Jena! Thanks so much for having me!

But wait, dear readers, there’s more!  Molly is also offering a giveaway.  She is offering a book, a sticker sheet, a bookmark and a set of 4 coloring pages! You can enter the rafflecopter here!