 She was living in Hobart, Tasmania when she illustrated her first full colour picture book.Since then she has gone on to be Laureate na nÓg in Ireland as well as win multiple awards including the Mother Goose Award,The Bisto Book of the Year and the Junior Book of the Year award at The Irish Book Awards.In 2019 Sharkey won the 2019 Children’s Books Ireland/Tyrone Guthrie Centre bursary.