photo by Baidi Kamagate

Cindy Derby is an author and illustrator of many critically acclaimed books for children, including Outside In, written by Deborah Underwood, which received a Caldecott Honor as well as five starred reviews. NPR has called her illustrations “mesmerizing,” and The New York Times regards her work as “profound…alive…and wonderfully out of control.” Cindy’s books have been translated all over the world and have also been awarded a Golden Kite Honor for Picture Book Illustration, a Crystal Kite Award, and international awards such as France’s Philosophia Jeunesse Prize, Brazil’s UNESCO Reading Chair award, and the Alpaca Award (bronze medal) in Japan’s Kembuchi Picture Book Awards. She lives with her family in San Francisco.

Hi everyone! Thanks for stopping by.

I grew up surrounded by woods and loved hanging out with my two black cats, building miniature homes for insects, and doodling on the sides of my homework. When I got older, I went to theater school for many years where I trained to be a performer and a puppeteer. I built and designed puppets all over the world, and directed, wrote and performed one-woman shows.

Today, I spend my time creating picture books. I think of a picture book as a stage for all these characters in my head to come to life. They are full of mischief. And I like that. In my free time, I love to swim in the San Francisco bay and embark on adventures with my family in our camper van.

Some facts about me:

  • I am a self taught painter. I use watercolor, charcoal, Inktense pencils, and India ink. I also make my own paint brushes.

  • I was awarded by the Jim Henson Foundation and Puppet Animation Scotland for my productions. Look at some photos here.

  • I was classically trained in theater & performance at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

  • I learned to paint when I was in college on very big canvases. When I couldn’t fit any more paintings inside my room, I started illustrating a bit smaller and discovered my love for watercolor.

Cindy Derby

Awards & News about books:

  • How To Walk An Ant was praised as “wonderfully offbeat” (Julie Danielson, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast), was named one of The Most Astonishingly Unconventional Children’s Books of 2019 (100 Scope Notes), and listed as one of School Library Journal’s Top Funny Picture Books of 2019.

  • Climbing Shadows was named a 2020 NCTE Notable Poetry Book and Verse Novel.

  • Outside In is a 2021 Caldecott Honor book. It also received a Golden Kite Honor for Picture Book Illustration from SCBWI. It has garnered FIVE STARRED reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, BCCB, and BookPage and was named one of the Best Books of 2020 by The New York Times, NPR, The Today Show, Publishers Weekly, NYPL, Evanston Public Library, Chicago Public Library and Bank Street College. The illustrations were praised by The New York Times as “alive...mysterious and wonderfully out of control.” The art was also selected to be part of the 2020 Society of Illustrators Original Art Show. It is the winner of the UNESCO Reading Chair in Brazil, and winner of France’s Philosophia Jeunesse Prize.

  • The Boy and the Gorilla is a 2021 SCBWI Crystal Kite Award Winner and a Bank Street College Best Book of 2021. It has three starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly & BCCB. It is the winner of the Alpaca Award (bronze medal) in Japan’s Kembuchi Picture Book Awards.

  • Two Many Birds is a Bank Street College Best Book of 2021. It has three starred reviews from Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly and School Library Journal.

  • Oh, Panda is a Bank Street College Best Book, a Publisher Weekly Best Book, and an Amazon Best Book of 2023.

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Select Clients:

Candlewick Press, Penguin Random House, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Simon & Schuster, Roaring Brook Press (Macmillan), Groundwood Books, Enchanted Lion Books, Greenwillow Books (Harper Collins), HBO

“There is something about Cindy Derby’s brain and the way she tells her stories that make me happy she’s making picture books. Rather, it’s many things…Derby is an author who doesn’t get in her own way. She lets character take the wheel here, and it is gratifying every (ant) step of the way.”
— Julie Danielson, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
“Derby’s art makes you feel that everything is going to be okay. Even when it’s weird. ESPECIALLY when it’s weird.”
— Betsy Bird, School Library Journal

What I’m Up to now:

It is an absolute delight to share the cover of my next book, WHEETLE! ❤️ While making the art for this book, I was pregnant with my little Lucy, waddlin around the studio and working up until the final days before her arrival. After she was born, I
ITS ME!!!!!! @baidi_lnpx , my dear friend, thank you for this photograph. I’m celebrating my tenth book coming out this spring and it was very much time to say goodbye to my headshot from when I was 28 (and oh-so-wanderlusty) and say HELLO to
closing in on my last spread of this book, and it’s 90 degrees and I want to jump into this painting #thedarkisforpicturebook
👀color proofs just arrived for my little wagon book, Wheetle! My next author-illustrated book out this Spring 🌻 more to come soon from this bug filled forest of critters and slugs and bogs and frogs 🦗🐞🐜🪲🦟 @mackidsbooks #wheetlethepicturebook
😴 🎨 snippet.
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Experimenting with long shadows 🌦️#thedarkisforpicturebook
Thank you Baywood Elementary for inviting me to a spectacular morning to read Blurp! A big thank you to Denise and Karen and the whole staff and teachers and students to help make Literacy Week a book lovin extravaganza. 🎨❤️📚
Absolutely Delighted by my virtual visit with Paddy Field Kindergarden in Shanghai. Thank you to the remarkable Storyland and @ellachen.wonderland and all the teachers who went above and beyond to share my books throughout the school. I love all the