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Sharon Creech

Author profile

born

in South Euclid, Ohio, The United States

July 29, 1945

gender

female

website

http://www.sharoncreech.com

genre

Children's Books

About this author

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I was born in South Euclid, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, and grew up there with my noisy and rowdy family: my parents (Ann and Arvel), my sister (Sandy), and my three brothers (Dennis, Doug and Tom).
For a fictional view of what it was like growing up in my family, see Absolutely Normal Chaos. (In that book, the brothers even have the same names as my own brothers.) Our house was not only full of us Creeches, but also full of friends and visiting relatives.
In the summer, we usually took a trip, all of us piled in a car and heading out to Wisconsin or Michigan or, once, to Idaho. We must have been a very noisy bunch, and I'm not sure how our parents put up with being cooped up with us in the car for those trips. The five-day trip out to Idah...more I was born in South Euclid, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, and grew up there with my noisy and rowdy family: my parents (Ann and Arvel), my sister (Sandy), and my three brothers (Dennis, Doug and Tom).
For a fictional view of what it was like growing up in my family, see Absolutely Normal Chaos. (In that book, the brothers even have the same names as my own brothers.) Our house was not only full of us Creeches, but also full of friends and visiting relatives.
In the summer, we usually took a trip, all of us piled in a car and heading out to Wisconsin or Michigan or, once, to Idaho. We must have been a very noisy bunch, and I'm not sure how our parents put up with being cooped up with us in the car for those trips. The five-day trip out to Idaho when I was twelve had a powerful effect on me: what a huge and amazing country! I had no idea then that thirty-some years later, I would recreate that trip in a book called Walk Two Moons.
One other place we often visited was Quincy, Kentucky, where my cousins lived (and still live) on a beautiful farm, with hills and trees and swimming hole and barn and hayloft. We were outside running in those hills all day long, and at night we'd gather on the porch where more stories would be told. I loved Quincy so much that it has found its way into many of my books--transformed into Bybanks, Kentucky. Bybanks appears in Walk Two Moons and Chasing Redbird and Bloomability. Bybanks also makes a brief appearance (by reference, but not by name) in The Wanderer.
When I was young, I wanted to be many things when I grew up: a painter, an ice skater, a singer, a teacher, and a reporter. It soon became apparent that I had little drawing talent, very limited tolerance for falling on ice, and absolutely no ability to stay on key while singing. I also soon learned that I would make a terrible reporter because when I didn't like the facts, I changed them. It was in college, when I took literature and writing courses, that I became intrigued by story-telling. Later, I was a teacher (high school English and writing) in England and in Switzerland. While teaching great literature, I learned so much about writing: about what makes a story interesting and about techniques of plot and characterization and point of view. I started out writing novels for adults: The Recital and Nickel Malley were both written and published while I was living in England (these books were published in England only and are now out of print.) But the next book was Absolutely Normal Chaos, and ever since that book I have written mainly about young people. Walk Two Moons was the first of my books to be published in America. When it received the Newbery Medal, no one was more surprised than I was. I'm still a little bit in shock.
After Walk Two Moons came Chasing Redbird, Pleasing the Ghost, Bloomability, The Wanderer, and Fishing in the Air. I hope to be writing stories for a long, long time.
I am married to Lyle Rigg, who is the headmaster of The Pennington School in Pennington, New Jersey, and have two grown children, Rob and Karin. Being with my family is what I enjoy most. The next-best thing is writing stories.

© Sharon Creech(less)

282 posts
Sharon Creech's Blog

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Sharon Creech's Books

Average rating: 3.90 · 134,402 ratings · 10,583 reviews · 35 distinct works · Similar authors

	Walk Two Moons 3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 avg rating — 70,695 ratings — published 1994 — 46 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Love That Dog 3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 avg rating — 16,209 ratings — published 2001 — 25 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ruby Holler 3.95 of 5 stars 3.95 avg rating — 7,578 ratings — published 2002 — 30 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Chasing Redbird 4.02 of 5 stars 4.02 avg rating — 5,915 ratings — published 1997 — 28 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Heartbeat 3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 avg rating — 5,520 ratings — published 2004 — 28 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Wanderer by Sharon Creech, David Diaz (Illustrations) 3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 avg rating — 5,700 ratings — published 2000 — 35 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bloomability 3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 avg rating — 5,165 ratings — published 1998 — 26 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Absolutely Normal Chaos 3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 avg rating — 4,301 ratings — published 1990 — 17 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hate That Cat 3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 avg rating — 3,543 ratings — published 2008 — 10 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Granny Torrelli Makes Soup 3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 avg rating — 3,211 ratings — published 2003 — 21 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Sharon Creech

“Then I thought, boy, isn't that just typical? You wait and wait and wait for something, and then when it happens, you feel sad.”
― Sharon Creech, Absolutely Normal Chaos

tags: sad, waiting

308 people liked it

“You can't keep the birds of sadness from flying over your head, but you can keep them from nesting in your hair.”
― Sharon Creech, Walk Two Moons

tags: sadness

207 people liked it

“Sometimes you know in your heart you love someone, but you have to go away before your head can figure it out.”
― Sharon Creech, Walk Two Moons

tags: love

202 people liked it

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Polls

What second pick for a Newbery Honor?

(I tried to include all the books we have read, along with the books mentioned on our "the others good and up" thread, and a few on the Newbery 2010 list on goodreads. If, however, I have not included a book you want to vote for just send me a message or write a comment. I will add it to the list.)

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

6 votes 18.8%

All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg

6 votes 18.8%

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

6 votes 18.8%

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

3 votes 9.4%

Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin

2 votes 6.3%

Wild Things by Clay Carmichael

2 votes 6.3%

The Year the Swallows Came Early by Kathryn Fitzmaurice

1 vote 3.1%

Charles and Emma The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman

1 vote 3.1%

Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur

1 vote 3.1%

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

1 vote 3.1%

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

1 vote 3.1%

A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck

1 vote 3.1%

The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

1 vote 3.1%

Al Capone Shines My Shoes by Gennifer Choldenko

0 votes 0.0%

The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine

0 votes 0.0%

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

0 votes 0.0%

Neil Armstrong is My Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me by Nan Marino

0 votes 0.0%

The Nine Pound Hammer by John Claude Bemis

0 votes 0.0%

Forest Born by Shannon Hale

0 votes 0.0%

Slob by Ellen Potter

0 votes 0.0%

Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede

0 votes 0.0%

Crossing Stones by Helen Frost

0 votes 0.0%

Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick

0 votes 0.0%

Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson

0 votes 0.0%

The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis by Barbara O'Connor

0 votes 0.0%

The Girl Who Threw Butterflies by Mick Cochrane

0 votes 0.0%

Here's How I See It--Here's How It Is by Heather Henson

0 votes 0.0%

Marcelo In The Real World by Francisco X. Stork

0 votes 0.0%

The Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech

0 votes 0.0%

The Book of the Maidservant by Rebecca Barnhouse

0 votes 0.0%

32 total votes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Mock Newbery 2014: July's poll	8	87	Aug 05, 2009 07:20pm
The Seasonal Read...: Native American books (10.6)	48	251	Oct 11, 2009 09:08am
The Newbery Award...: 2001 Honor - The Wanderer	1	7	Feb 08, 2010 09:38am
The Newbery Award...: 1995 Medal Winner - Walk Two Moons	5	16	Feb 11, 2010 09:47pm
The Next Best Boo...: Opening Paragraphs	352	1076	Feb 15, 2010 06:12pm
The Ultimate Teen...: Lisa's [Sentimental for Scholastic Book orders] Progress	13	117	Mar 10, 2010 07:02am
Harry Potter RP: First thing you can think of! ♪	177	28	Apr 16, 2010 10:01pm
The Next Best Boo...: If you could buy 5 books...	62	773	Jun 15, 2010 05:58pm

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Sharon Creech

Author profile

282 postsSharon Creech's Blog

combine editionsSharon Creech's Books

Upcoming Events

Quotes by Sharon Creech

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

282 posts
Sharon Creech's Blog

combine editions
Sharon Creech's Books