Q&A with Maddie Frost

 

Maddie Frost is the author and illustrator of the new children's graphic novel Really Rubie. Her other books include Capybara Is Friends with Everyone. She lives in Massachusetts.

 

Q: What inspired you to create Really Rubie, and how did you come up with the idea for your character Rubie?

 

A: Really Rubie was inspired by my trip at summer camp in Vermont for a month. However, my best friend came with me. I always wondered what kind of experience I would have had if I went alone.

 

Even though this story takes place at a summer camp, it isn’t really about summer camp. It’s about being forced to brave the unknown without the security blanket of a best friend.

 

Q: Can you say more about why you chose a summer camp as the book's setting?

 

A: Summer camp felt like the most vulnerable place to sling-shot Rubie into. I wanted the stakes of the struggles to be as high as possible. This would be the longest time she would be away from home, she would have to make friends and find her people. It was an endless pool of conflict that I couldn’t wait to see how she navigated.

 

I also think summer camp is such a coming-of-age moment for a tween. For me, it was the first time I learned that the world is bigger than home, school, and my best friend. It was my first real growth experience.

 

Q: This is your first middle grade novel--what do you like about creating for that audience?

 

A: I loooove writing for this audience. Part of me will always be a tween at heart. I’m totally proud to embrace that. It means I will always feel vulnerable, awkward, emotional, and sensitive. Those things are nothing to feel embarrassed or ashamed of.

 

I’m here to remind my readers of that. I’ve lived through everything Rubie is going through. Rubie was me. Is me.

 

The best thing about writing middle-grade is that I have a platform to remind my readers to be themselves at a time when it feels the hardest. And that it’s okay to laugh at yourself along the way.

 

Q: Did you work on the text first or the illustrations first, or both simultaneously?

 

A: Text first, always. I write the manuscript all the way through, then revise any notes from my editor. Once it’s good to go, I copy and paste the text from the Word document into a Photoshop file in her “handwriting” on the ruled line notebook paper. The font you see in the book is a font I made of my handwriting.

 

With no planning, I go in with my pen-tool and doodle whatever I feel like Rubie would want to draw throughout her diary entries. I make sure not to overthink it, because Rubie definitely wouldn’t. This girl is running on pure emotion.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m currently illustrating Really Rubie book two’s diary doodles! The manuscript is finished, and I can’t wait for readers to find out what happens next. Think 12th birthday, entering sixth grade, the biggest LIE ever, friend-triangle drama, and a new crush. OH-EM-GEE.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: This is for my readers. I hope you love this series, and I hope Rubie becomes a good friend to you. She is the hero of her own story, just like you.

 

If you are faced with obstacles without your best friend, or out of your comfort zone, be brave enough to rise to the occasion. I promise the Universe will meet you halfway, and your internal growth will skyrocket. In the wise words of Jim The Duck... YOU GOT THIS.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Maddie Frost.