Ruthy Ballard is a children’s book author, artist, and scientist who lives in Newport, Oregon. By day, she’s “Dr. Ruth Ballard,” a professor and forensic DNA expert. By night, she romps in an imaginative playground of colors and words. Ruthy is the author of Frankie and the Gift of Fantasy, Tales by Moons-Light: Stories from Before the Great Melt, and Elvia and the Gift of Passion. She is currently working on the fourth book in her Tales by Moons-light series: Bubba and the Gift of Big Thoughts. Her entertaining stories lure middle grade readers into science, but her creative ventures don’t stop there. She’s also a folk artist whose colorful “cartoons” delight and inspire both children and adults. Ruthy is married to a musician and is the mother of two sons, two cats, and four dogs, all of whom appear in her work, in various guises, from time to time.