First of four children, Noa was a sister to three by the age of five. By the age of twelve Noa has moved from Israel to the US and back—twice! If that sounds confusing to you, imagine how she felt.
Noa’s favorite form of expression was always drawing, and it worked in all languages and without voice, which suited Noa’s shy personality growing up.
After high school, and two years of service in the Israeli army, Noa followed her passion for art and studied design (graphic/product/packaging).
Working for a big-chain bookstore as a window dresser and becoming a mom (reading to her kids every night) Noa fell in love with picture books and decided to try and write her own. It was definitely harder than it seemed. After many drafts and countless rejections Noa finally got a publishing deal for her first picture book (in Hebrew). Everyone who knew her asked why she didn’t illustrate it, and so she wrote a second picture book illustrating this time around.
While working on books and raising three children, Noa missed the feel of hands-on three dimensional art work, and wanted to learn something new, all this led her to metalsmithing. Making jewelry in silver and gold.
In 2009 Noa’s husband was offered a job in San Diego, and with three kids and a dog they moved (Noa pretty much breaking a promise to herself not to put her kids through the moves she experienced as a child). Her children’s challenges mirrored some of her own and brought back memories of when she moved to the US. And that was the seed for Not So Shy, Noa’s first book in English.
Now that her kids flew the nest, Noa is back to illustrating, and plans to keep writing for kids of all ages, combining her love for kids, art and writing.
