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Sharon
was born in South Euclid, Ohio a suburb of Cleveland, and
grew up there with her noisy and rowdy family: her parents
(Ann and Arvel), her sister (Sandy), and her three brothers
(Dennis, Doug and Tom). In the summer, they usually took
a trip, they all piled in a car and heading out to Wisconsin
or Michigan or once to Idaho. Her trip to Idaho was the
inspiration for her book Walk Two Moons.
When
Sharon was young she wanted to be many things when she grew
up: a painter, an ice skater, a singer, a teacher, and a
reporter. She says it soon became apparent that she had
little drawing talent, very limited tolerance for falling
on ice, and absolutely no ability to stay in tune when singing.
Sharon
also soon learned that she would make a terrible reporter
because when she didn’t like the facts she changed
them. It was in college, where she took literature and writing
courses, that she became intrigued with story telling.
Sharon
received her BA at Ohio’s Miram College and her Master
of Arts from the University of Virginia. Her previous jobs
include teacher, editorial assistant, indexer and a researcher.
Sharon
started writing novels for adults and published two books
while she lived in England having moved there in 1979. She
then wrote Absolutely Normal Chaos and since then has mainly
written about young people.
She is the winner of the Newbery medal for her novel Walk
Two Moons, it was also shortlisted for the Smarties Book
Prize and received a Mind Boggling Books Award and a United
Kingdom Reading Association Award. Chasing Redbird was shortlisted
for the Whitbread Award.
Sharon is married to Lyle Rigg, a headmaster in New Jersey
and they have two grown children: Rob and Karin.
Biography
provided by Bloomsbury
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