Rats to the Rescue: An Interview with Author Scott Riley and Illustrator Huy Voun Lee

Sometimes heroes come in the smallest packages! In Rats to the Rescue: The Unlikely Heroes Making Cambodia Safe discover how how human deminers are working with specially trained HeroRATs to locate landmines and make Cambodia safe for everyone.

Today author Scott Riley and illustrator Huy Voun Lee join us to share their creative processes, their hopes for readers, and some insider info on how this nonfiction picture book came to be!

Speaking with Author Scott Riley

How did you first learn about the HeroRATS of Cambodia?

For years my daughter and I have been traveling to Siem Reap, Cambodia, from my home here in Singapore every Thanksgiving where we spend four days working with students and teachers in local schools. To me, those teachers are heroes, providing such rich learning experiences for their students. What I didn’t know for many of those years was that there was another set of heroes nearby–rats!

In 2020, I read an article about Magawa, one of the HeroRATS who worked with the APOPO group to rid Cambodia of landmines. Buried by soldiers in the 1970s and 1980s, landmines have been a continual problem for Cambodians across the country since then, but I was amazed to learn that scientists had trained giant African pouched rats to do some of the work. I had to know more. I wrote to Sambat Meas, the Visitor Center Manager at APOPO in Siem Reap, and he invited me to go see them in the field. Together we drove to the Cambodian-Thai border where I watched four teams of HeroRATS and their deminers safely unearth landmines. That’s where I met Malen, one of the main characters of Rats to the Rescue, and learned all about her and Magawa’s incredible story.

What is the most surprising thing you discovered while researching or writing the book?

So many things surprised me when researching this story–the devastating history, the challenging process of demining, the resilience of the Cambodian people–but perhaps the most surprising (and fascinating) aspect of this story is the rats themselves. These cat-sized creatures love to climb up your arm and perch on your shoulder. But when they are in the field, they get right to work, furiously criss-crossing the ground sniffing out TNT powder until they stop and scratch where unexploded mines are buried below.

I was especially surprised to learn that the deminers have to work hard to keep the rats as sharp as possible. With tasty treats involved, rats are tempted to scratch anywhere just to receive their reward. Each day, after long mornings in the minefields, deminers retest and retrain rats on practice fields to keep their smelling sense up to snuff.

What do you hope readers will learn or discover from reading your book?

I hope readers will feel just as amazed as I did when learning about how Cambodians and rats are working so hard to make their country safe after all these years. Who knows? Maybe readers will think differently about rats and how smart they are, but most of all, I hope that readers realize that heroes come in all shapes and sizes. With a little determination and a willingness to take a step forward, any one of us (people or rats!) can go from ordinary to extraordinary.

What was your inspiration for the book?

When I was a boy, I met Mr. and Mrs. Hull and their four children. My family helped them resettle in the United States after leaving their home country of Cambodia. Back then I had no idea why they left, but now I do. Those wartorn years in the 1970s disrupted the lives of millions of Cambodians like the Hulls. Thankfully, today Cambodia is a safe and wonderful place to live and visit, and I’ve been lucky to go back again and again. I’ve been fortunate to meet so many Cambodians both young and old who work tirelessly to honor their culture and create hope for the future. Along with the Hulls, they are the ones who inspired me to write this book.

What was it like writing Rats to the Rescue?

I could not have written this book without the help of  Sambat Meas and his colleagues at APOPO. From their initial interest in the project, to their support in visiting the minefields and their continued responses in answering questions and following up on the smallest of details, Sambat and his team were so generous with their time and expertise.

As I wrote and revised Rats to the Rescue again and again, a parallel plot structure began to emerge. The two main characters, Malen and Magawa, are completely different, but their experiences aren’t. And once I made those connections, I used repeated text and matching page turns to bring out the ideas of overcoming adversity and leading with determination.

Finally, I have to mention what it was like when I first saw Huy Voun Lee’s illustrations. The words of any picture book are only half of the story, and when paired with artwork, it all comes to life. I love how Huy’s vibrant spreads and powerful perspectives capture the heartache and hope of the Cambodian people and the curious and clever nature of the HeroRATs. Because of them, readers feel as if they are right there with Malen and Magawa in Cambodia.

Speaking with Illustrator Huy Voun Lee

Why did you decide to take on this project?

I’ve always wanted to work on a project about Cambodia, because it is my birth country. My family often talks about our lives there fondly before being uprooted by the war. My aunt, who had to experience Pol Pot’s concentration camp, told me she could not go back to Cambodia because it doesn’t remember her. All her memories are already buried in the old soil. But for me, I don’t even have any memory. I lost the ability to speak the language except for the few words that stuck with me (and I didn’t even know it was Khmer, until my uncle told me!). Researching for this book is not just educational for me, but it also serves as a connection to the country I was born in.

How did you choose the style you used to illustrate this book?

For years, all my books were created in cut-paper collages. This non-fiction book, however, gave me the opportunity to illustrate in my realistic, painterly style. It is an important subject and a real event in world history. War, genocide, and de-mining, unfortunately, are some of the things children will experience more often today so I feel it is necessary to render the illustrations with as much details as possible.

What did you most enjoy about illustrating this book?

I got to learn about Hero-rats! I’m very afraid of New York City rats, but the hero-rats are adorable!

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced illustrating this book?

I did not expect to have my heart distressed and angered upon watching documentaries of the war during my research. It became more real. I had to take a week off to heal before starting on the sketches. I had to reread the manuscript and change my perspective on the subject as one of hope and resilience.

What is your creative process when working with a manuscript?

I read and reread the manuscript a few times on different days. I think a lot before starting the doodling process. I’ll do some research, look for references, and look through my collection of favorite books to get inspired. Once I start to put down my thoughts, I will continue to change things around. I have a bad habit of being indecisive. The more time I have, the more I tend to make changes, but as time passes and the deadline is near, the first sketch will appear and define the flow of the book.

When did you start working digitally?

I use to resist working digitally, until it was necessary to continue my art career. It was quite a learning curve for me to learn Adobe photoshop and Adobe illustrator, because I never got proper lessons. I learned how to use the basic tools mostly from book and YouTube videos, but really, I was just basically drawing as if I was drawing on a piece of paper. What I can’t make happen on photoshop, I use illustrator and vice-versa, merging the 2 programs together. To this day, I still don’t know how to use all the functions the program offers. Then I got my first iPad Pro to experiment with Procreate and it was magic! It is more simple to use than photoshop and it really feels like I’m drawing traditionally, but without the mess. I can paint and fix my strokes without redo. I also like that I can easily change the size and colors of the paper patterns and not worry about not having enough of that particular paper to use.

What is your favorite medium?

My favorite medium will always be paper. I grew up playing with the scrap papers my mom would bring home from the office. I drew, practice writing my ABCs, cut and fold origami with those papers. I even drew on the scrap papers to submit for my art high school entrance exam. It’s the only medium I can use to create in 2D or 3D. I also love papers with different textures and patterns. Whenever I get to travel to a different country, I make it a point to visit a stationary store to look at the paper collections.

Although I mostly create my book illustrations on my iPad now, I still occasionally do traditional cut paper or cut paper collages for personal fun. Most of my earlier books were done in my cut paper collage style.

Please describe your artistic process and the medium that you used to create your illustrations.

I use Procreate to create the illustrations for Rats to the Rescue. Although it is rendered realistically, I tried to insert some of my paper collection into the artworks wherever possible. I love that the paper added some patterns and textures to the illustration.

Praise for Rats to the Rescue

“With Lee’s painted scenes (switching to photos in the back matter) to illustrate, the authors describe in detail how both the people and the rats are trained, how Malen and her colleagues bond with their animals, and how they carefully and systematically stake out and sweep suspected minefields.”—Booklist

“An unusual subject, sensitively handled.”—Kirkus Reviews

“A very interesting and compelling story that most young readers will be unaware of, and many will find fascinating.”—School Library Journal

“This would be a great addition to a unit on animal helpers or world geography for elementary school classrooms. Reviewer Rating: 5″—Children’s Literature

Connect with the Creators

Lerner authors and illustrators have created some of the coolest fiction and nonfiction around. To hear their stories, find more interviews on the Lerner blog!