Sharon Creech (born July 29, 1945) is an American writer of

children's novels Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

. She was the first American winner of the Carnegie Medal for British children's books and the first person to win both the American

Newbery Medal The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished cont ...

and the British Carnegie.

Biography

Sharon Creech was born in South Euclid, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, where she grew up with her parents (Ann and Arvel), one sister (Sandy), and three brothers (Dennis, Doug and Tom). She often used to visit her cousins in Quincy, Lewis County, Kentucky, which has found its way into many of her books as fictional Bybanks, Kentucky. Bybanks appears in ''

Walk Two Moons ''Walk Two Moons'' is a novel written by Sharon Creech, published by HarperCollins in 1994 and winner of the 1995 Newbery Medal. The novel was originally intended as a follow-up to Creech's previous novel ''Absolutely Normal Chaos''; but, the ide ...

'', '' Chasing Redbird,'' and '' Bloomability'' and there is an allusion to Bybanks in '' The Wanderer''. At college in the U.S. she became intrigued by story-telling after taking literature and writing courses, and she later became a teacher of

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

English and Writing in England and Switzerland. Her first children's novel ''Absolutely Normal Chaos'' was published only in the U.K., by Macmillan Children's Books in 1990. Called "comedy about contemporary teen life" by ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'', it featured a 13-year-old girl's "complete and unabridged journal for English class". Her first book published in the U.S. was ''

'' (1994), which won the American

in 1995. Later that year, ''Absolutely Normal Chaos'' was first published in the U.S. by HarperCollins —set in her hometown Euclid, Ohio. Creech returned to the U.S. in 1998 after 18 years abroad. She is married to Lyle Rigg, a headmaster in New Jersey, and has two grown children, Rob and Karin.

Books

She has written both novels and picture books. She often embeds serious topics into her stories, including such themes as independence, trust, childhood, adulthood, and death, often using humour to soften them. Books such as '' Love That Dog'' and '' Heartbeat'' were written in verse, whereas other books like '' Ruby Holler'' and ''

'' are in a narrative style. ''Bloomability'' (1998) features an American girl at a

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of " room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exte ...

in Switzerland. The setting was inspired by

The American School In Switzerland TASIS or TASIS Switzerland, formally known as The American School In Switzerland, is a private American international boarding and day school in Switzerland. It is the oldest of the four TASIS Schools. TASIS is the oldest American college-prepa ...

, where Creech taught English. She returned to the fictional school exercise in ''Love That Dog'' (Harper Collins and Bloomsbury, 2001), the

blank verse Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", and Pa ...

diary of "Jack, a reluctant student, horesists poetry assignments from his teacher, Miss Stretchberry." It was a commended runner-up for the British Carnegie Medal.

Awards

In 1995, ''

'' won the

from the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...

, recognizing the year's best children's book by an American author. In the U.K., it won the annual

Children's Book Award Children's Book Award is a generic term that has been applied to: * Caldecott Medal, Caldecott Medal, annual "most distinguished American picture book for children" * Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award from the Vermont Department of Libr ...

for long novels, voted by children, and the Reading Association Award. In 1997, it also won the Literaturhaus Award, Austria, and the Young Adult Sequoyah Award, Oklahoma, USA . '' Bloomability'' won the IRA/CBC Children's Choices award in 1999. '' The Wanderer'' won the Parents' Choice Award, USA, in 2000, and it was a runner-up for the Newbery Medal. It was one of eight books on the Carnegie Medal shortlist in the U.K. Creech and ''Love That Dog'' were a commended runner-up for the 2001 Carnegie Medal and she won the 2002 Medal from the

British librarians British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

, recognizing '' Ruby Holler'' as the year's best children's book published in the U.K.

Works

* 1990 ''The Recital'', novel for adults, published as Sharon RiggSharon Creech: Selected Bibliography
at Ohio reading Road Trip * 1991 ''Nickel Malley'', novel for adults, published as Sharon Rigg * 1992 ''The Center of the Universe: Waiting for the Girl'', play * 1990 '' Absolutely Normal Chaos'' * 1994 ''

'' * 1996 ''Pleasing the Ghost'' * 1997 '' Chasing Redbird'' * 1998 '' Bloomability'' * 2000 ''Fishing in the Air'' * 2000 '' The Wanderer'' * 2001 '' Love That Dog'' * 2001 ''A Fine, Fine School'' * 2002 '' Ruby Holler'' * 2003 ''Granny Torrelli Makes Soup'' * 2004 '' Heartbeat'' * 2005 '' Replay'' * 2006 ''Who's That Baby'' * 2007 ''The Castle Corona'' (Illustrated by David Diaz) * 2008 '' Hate That Cat'' * 2009 ''The Unfinished Angel'' * 2012 ''The Great Unexpected'' * 2013 ''The Boy on the Porch'' * 2016 ''Moo'' * 2018 ''Saving Winslow''

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Creech, Sharon American children's writers Carnegie Medal in Literature winners Newbery Honor winners Newbery Medal winners Hiram College alumni People from South Euclid, Ohio Writers from Ohio Writers from New Jersey 1945 births Living people