Author/Illustrator Spotlight: Deb Pilutti

Town and country, kind people, cartoons, Giverny, doodles, retreats, and Kirbi: Author/illustrator Deb Pilutti

Charlie Barshaw coordinates our regular Writer Spotlight feature and interviews writers of SCBWI. In this piece, meet author/ illustrator  Deb Pilutti.

The City Kid and the Suburb Kid, published by Sterling in 2008, is written by you and illustrated by someone else. Did you try to illustrate this book, or did you consider yourself primarily a writer back then?

I knew I’d like to do both some day, but at that time was sending out illustrator postcards in the hopes of being published as an illustrator first. This book came from an unusual situation — an editor at Sterling Publishing had received my postcards and asked if I would consider trying to write and illustrate a story they already had an idea for: The City Kid and the Suburb Kid, based on The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. 

I did not have a contract, but gave it a try. Sterling liked my text, but my sample illustrations weren’t quite there, so they ended up choosing Linda Bleck to illustrate it – which I agree was the right choice for that book. It was a great learning experience for me and I enjoyed working with the team.

 

Then you illustrated but didn’t write The Twelve Days of Christmas in Michigan. Was this your first illustrated book? How did you come to be involved in this project?

The Twelve Days of Christmas in Michigan was part of a book series with the same editorial team at Sterling that produced the City Kid and Suburb Kid. They chose an author and illustrator from whichever state was being featured. Sue Collins Thoms and I were chosen to do the Michigan version.

 

Ten Rules of Being a Superhero was published by Christy Ottaviano’s imprint in 2014. What happened in the four years after Twelve Days and before Ten Rules? 

Life! I was co-parenting two children and working my day job as a graphic designer, so I would often go a long time between working on book projects or sending out postcards or manuscripts. 

At one point, I realized I would never have a book as an author/illustrator published unless I treated writing and illustration like a full-time job. So that’s what I did. I put in the hours.

Just one year later, 2015, Bear and Squirrel are Friends…Yes, Really! was published by Paula Wiseman Books. Now you’re treading with big children’s publishing icons. What’s it like working with the best? Are they regular folks?  

I continue to be amazed at how kind people in children’s publishing are. I came to publishing after working as a graphic designer in an ad agency where bigwigs in suits (clients) would regularly make some of us creatives cry. It could be a cutthroat industry.

I still pinch myself that I get to work with some wonderful editors and art directors, like Paula Wiseman, Christy Ottaviano, Susan Kochan and Cecilia Yung. They are so skilled at bringing out and publishing the best possible story.

While I did read quite a bit as a child, I also watched copious amounts of TV. Especially cartoons. This was once a source of shame, until I realized that I received a master class in humor, pacing and illustration from the artists at Warner Brothers studios and Jay Ward animations. My sensibilities were defined by episodes of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Fractured Fairy Tales and of course that one with the singing frog! The humor in these programs ranged from slapstick to sophisticated—I definitely did not always catch the joke the first time around.

Do you despair then, at the outcry that children are spending too much time on their screens? Or are the games and reels and videos of today masterclasses for the right creative individuals?

I think we are all spending too much time on our screens! But when I’m in a school visit, one thing I tell young creators is that they should take note of what catches their attention, whatever that might be. 

I happened to love watching Warner Brothers and Jay Ward cartoons and reading. I think what I really loved was the storytelling, characterization and design, and those passions filtered into a lot of later choices.

Before becoming an author & illustrator, I was a graphic designer and created toys for Oliebollen.com and graphics for SeaWorld and Warner Brothers theme parks.

Did you get a chance to work in some of your favorite Warner Brothers cartoon characters while you worked for the theme park?

As a matter of fact, the area we (The Ten8 Group) were hired to work on was Cartoon Village, where Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and the rest of the characters had houses, rides, restaurants and shops. We needed to know everything about these characters in order to design the graphic elements of Cartoon Village, and I felt like I really knew them. Finally! Validation for the hours I spent in front of the television. It was a full circle moment for me.

My studio is in a small bedroom. I have a long table with a computer and extra monitor set up on it, and I sometimes sketch here as well. A painting easel is in the corner of the room. It’s a very messy place, with papers everywhere and knick-knacks and toys and bits of shiny things on every surface. I like all of my toys, but my favorite one is a realistic toy model of a T-rex with a moveable jaw.

Does that still describe your studio. Ruth also works out of a small, cluttered bedroom. Do you ever pine, like she does, for a spacious workspace?

Absolutely. I would love to have a little more space to draw and paint and spread out pages. I’d also like to work in a communal studio. But honestly, if I had more room, it would probably still be messy.

 

Old Rock (is not boring) won a whole slew of awards, including the 2022 Giverny Award for best science book. After years of writing and illustrating so many titles, were you surprised by the love Old Rock received?

I had so much fun working on Old Rock and loved working with the team at Putnam. I felt really gratified that people connected with it, because you don’t really know how a book will be received. Old Rock came out a couple of months before the pandemic, so I was lucky it was reviewed beforehand, and that it got to be in a physical store for a few weeks before everything shut down for months.

Usually, the story comes first for me, but this time, all I had was the character to start with. Well, really, I had two characters—Henry and the fish costume! The costume became a character who didn’t always react in the same way as Henry. I needed to find a scenario where a boy wearing a fish costume felt natural. I also needed to find the heart of the story.  I wrote a few different versions before I found something that I thought worked.

You loved the doodle of the kid in the fish costume so much you decided to put Henry and his costume into a story. Would you recommend this character-first way of creating a story to other writers?

I would recommend trying it as an exercise, at least. I had three books come from drawing a character first and then finding a story through that character.

 

Bear and Squirrel are Friends…Yes, Really! is a favorite of mine as I love subversive humor. How did these characters and plot begin?

Thanks so much! I was attending a remote retreat in Michigan with a couple of writer friends when the idea for the story was conceived.

That’s the second of your books I’ve seen born out of a writer retreat. (My Best Friend is a Lion is the first.) What head space do you seek while at a retreat?

I prefer to go on a retreat with one or two trusted friends and not have very structured activities. It’s good to take a couple of uninterrupted days to think about book making. It might be a time to work on revisions, talk through problems, or spend time ideating. We usually have suggestions for activities though. 

For instance, at one retreat, we were writing down memories from our own childhood to connect with the age of kids we were writing for. One of my memories was about wishing I had a pet lion, and I ended up writing a loose first draft of My Best Friend is a Lion, which was published last January.

I have a big messy wooden table that I always have to clear off when I want to draw. (Sometimes I do my sketching at the dinner table so that I can spread out more.) My laptop and monitor are also on the table and I will composite work digitally there and prep for printing. My easel is in a nook. I like to paint standing up because I feel like I put more energy into the work.

Do you still enjoy painting at an easel? Or are you satisfied with the digital magic now available to you?

I almost always start an illustration with a painting, though not always at the easel. And I often will try out a different medium or technique, like monoprinting or adding wax pastels.  I’ll use digital tools for compositing elements or drawing details.

What was your favorite story?  

I have two: Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak, and Little Blue and Little Yellow, by Leo Lionni. 

Everyone knows Wild Things. But what about Lionni’s book captured your young imagination?

Little Blue and Little Yellow was Leo Lionni’s first book for children. In it, Lionni used torn pieces of colored paper to tell an engaging and emotional story about two little blobs of color. The blobs did not even have faces, yet they were believable as characters. The characters go through many emotions — suspense, fear, tears and elation. 

Little Blue and Little Yellow are best friends and at one point in the story, the characters hug and turn green. When they eventually try to go back to their families, they are not recognized and are turned away. They cry yellow and blue tears and pull themselves back together. 

Their story was an emotional roller coaster. I was so relieved when Little Blue and Little Yellow’s families recognized them and were happy to be reunited. 

(Side note: I had Leo Lionni as a graphic design teacher for a week workshop in Italy when I was in college. We designed wine labels with him. I recall his sense of play, even in designing a wine label.)

 

When I was young, my family camped. It was an economical way for a family of 7 to travel, but it was also fun and a great way to see the country. I continued camping and hiking with my own children. Michigan is a wonderful place to get out and enjoy nature.

What are some of your favorite camping adventures?

We always had a lot of fun along Lake Michigan. One of our favorite campsites was along the Nordhouse Dunes. Our kids and dogs would spend all day running down the dunes and jumping in the lake. We also have fond and funny memories of backpacking in Colorado.

What’s next for Deb?

Kirbi and Deb

Something I’m really excited about! I’m working on a book with Kirbi Fagan on a book about a child’s curiosity and musings about clouds. It will be coming from Lerner Publishing in late 2027 or early 2028.

 

Please list any social media you care to share:

Instagram and  

Bluesky @dpilutti