Sixth Grade
Worksheets
Sharon Creech
Sharon Creech, best-selling author and winner of both the Newbery Medal and Newbery Honor Award, was born in July of 1945. She grew up in a suburb of Cleveland called South Euclid, Ohio. Creech considered her family quite rowdy and even used this family atmosphere in one of her books. In fact, family relationships are a central focus of her books along with life, love, and other types of relationships.
Creech grew up with her parents, three brothers, and one sister, and the seven of them made up a very active family. During the summertime, they would normally go on trips. They would travel to Wisconsin, Michigan, and Idaho. Their trip to Idaho, which included five days packed in a car, impacted Creech. She was twelve at the time and was quite amazed by the beautiful state. Over thirty years later, this family trip would be recreated in her book, Walk Two Moons. Another place Creech's family would visit was Quincy, Kentucky. Her cousins had a typical farm with all the benefits: trees, hills, a barn, a hayloft, and a swimming hole. The farm was so special to Creech that it worked into several of her books as Bybanks, Kentucky. Walk Two Moons, Chasing Redbird, and Bloomability were all influenced by the cousin's farm.
Growing up, Creech had many plans for her future. She thought about being a painter, a singer, a teacher, an ice skater, and a reporter. She discovered very quickly the drawbacks for most of these career plans. It was her college literature and writing classes that got her interested in writing. She learned about plot, characterization, point of view, and other important aspects of writing. After college and graduate school, Creech first worked as an editorial assistant and later became a high school English and writing teacher in Switzerland and England. When Creech started her own writing, she began writing adult novels. Two books, now out of print, were published in England only.
