Carolyn Dial featured in Harris Co. Kids Newsletter

Meet the HCPL Children's Staff
Harris County Public Library (Houston, TX) has 26 branch libraries across the county. We have over 60 staff members dedicated to serving children in our community. Let's meet one of them!

Miss Carolyn
Carolyn Dial is the Children's Librarian at the North Channel Branch Library. She has been at North Channel for over two years. The children call her "Miss Carolyn" in that fine old Southern tradition!

What do you like to read?

I like to read all kinds of books!! New children's books, fiction books and biographies. My favorite new children's book is Ivan the Terrier by Peter Catalanotto. This is SUCH a funny story!

What was your favorite book when you were a kid?

My favorite book was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. There is a whole series of books about Oz and I eagerly read ALL of them!

What are your hobbies?

I enjoy music, both listening to it and making it. I am now learning to sing alto in the church choir. I also enjoy storytelling. I collect stories, learn them and tell them to children as often as I can. I especially like family stories. I present a program each summer for the kids entitled "Little House on the East Texas Prairie." I share stories from my family and show old photos, tools and clothes to enrich the experience. I wrote some of these stories for a book entitled, Trinity County: A Legend of Its Own. My book is now "in processing" at the Library of Congress! I am SO excited!!

What was your favorite subject in school?

My favorite subject in elementary school was Library Time--any surprise?? In junior high and senior high, I took advanced math classes and I really enjoyed these. In college, I was an English major and took many Humanities classes as I also love music and art, but I still found time to take calculus!

What do you like best about your job?

I love sharing tales with kids in Story Time! It is also fun to help kids and parents find the books, videos and web sites that they need. I also like to find good new books to order for our library.

Anything else you want to share about yourself?

When I attended Sarasota (Florida) Junior High School, the kids called me silly names based on my last name, like "Sun Dial" and "Soapy." Since I smiled all the time, they also called me "Smiley."



Miss Carolyn with a young Harry Potter.



Arrgh!! A pirate's life for me!