Alex Archer: Sharon Creech Author Study

For our author study I chose to read a couple of books by Sharon Creech. This is perfect because a little bit later in the semester we will be reading another one of her books, Love That Dog, and I will have a little bit of prior knowledge regarding some of her other works. Of the two books I chose I ended up liking one more than the other but they were both good reads. The first book I read was Ruby Holler which is about two orphans who feel like it is just them against the world but eventually find their way. I ended up liking this read and could tell it is the type of book I would have really enjoyed when I was younger. The second book I read was Heartbeat about a young girl with an intense passion for running. Heartbeat was very interesting because the whole book was written in poem form which might be the reason I had a hard time really getting attached to it but I did find it very interesting.

After talking in groups during class with other students who had chosen other Sharon Creech novels I realized that most of her books have some sort of theme. It seemed to me that from what I gathered Sharon Creech’s books have a theme of a sort of misery. There usually was always a pattern of something tragic which is very intriguing to me. This pattern reminded me of how most Disney movies have a parent missing or a parent dies which was a result of Walt Disney’s complicated past. I now wonder if Creech’s books are an indication of some previous influence in her life and I am now very curious to read Love That Dog to see if the theme continues.