About Deana

Deana Sobel Lederman is an author, illustrator and cartoonist. Her latest picture book, Morgan, was published by TBR Books in partnership with the Morgan Library and Museum in 2024. In 2020, TBR Books published her trilogy of picture books about the Covid-19 pandemic, “Rainbows, Masks and Ice Cream,” now available in 14 languages worldwide. She has worked extensively with the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, creating illustrations for marketing and watercolors for the Museum Shop. Her work has also been featured by the National Children’s Museum, Cluny Museum in Paris (social media), Minnesota Children’s Museum, Parents Magazine (social media), Business Insider, Barron’s, the Brooklyn Public Library, and the New York City Department of Education, where she illustrated the Chancellor’s holiday cards. You can learn more about her work in the Del Mar Times, as well as in this interview by ABC San Diego.

For many years, Deana wrote the webcomic Philip the Sea Lion. As an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, she illustrated and cartooned for The Daily Californian. She earned national recognition for her editorial cartoons and was a finalist for both the John Locher Memorial Award and the Society of Professional Journalism Mark of Excellence Awards. Deana lives in San Diego, California with her husband and two young sons.

You can follow Deana on Instagram @drawdeanadraw. She is represented by Kristen Terrette at Martin Literary Management.

Above is a snippet from a Morgan Library newsletter featuring some of Deana’s drawings.

Helping Kids Cope with Covid

By Gloria Goldreich November 2020

Whether teaching resilience in the face of adversity or giving lessons on navigating the realities of the pandemic, this group of books can help children face fears and anxieties.

Noah Henry: A Rainbow Story; Masks!; The Sewing Lesson All written and illustrated by Deana Sobel Lederman (TBR Books, 24-30 pp.)

Kudos to Deana Sobel Lederman for creating this welcome trio of charming paperbacks to reach out to the very youngest readers dealing with the safety restrictions of the pandemic. Recently translated into Hebrew, with simple, appealing illustrations, they stress the importance of masks and the joy of sharing. Noah Henry cannot be with his friends in school right now but finds a way to reach out to them to brighten his day; in Masks!, a group of young animals cover their faces before going about their day; and a young girl learns how to sew a mask for health care workers, including her grandfather, in The Sewing Lesson.