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Former dentist turned local author Christine Dahl celebrates elements of her life in semi-autobiographical children’s book

Christine Dahl
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Christine Dahl

Dr. Christine Dahl grew up in the South, but she moved to the Quad Cities in 1972. Though not a native, she’s plenty familiar with the area, having formerly owned and operated Bettendorf Dental in nearby Iowa. She worked there for 40 years, then sold the business to a corporation, retiring to an extent.

These days, she’s still Dr. Dahl, as she’s a locum-tenens dentist, which means she’ll travel occasionally to help out at dental practices close by and farther away. She’s been in the medical sector most of her life, but her enjoyment of the creative process has never waned. She studied as an English minor in college. Writing’s something she’s always delighted in as a hobby.

Dahl has a deep love for children. She started her career assisting, providing for, and supporting them as an elementary-school teacher, after graduating with a degree in teaching in Louisiana. When she moved to the Midwest, there weren’t many jobs open to educators at the time, leading to her decision to go become a dentist.

The mother of one of her patients was the first to encourage Dahl to write a book. She had heard Dahl share about the impact her third-grade teacher had had on her. Several other figures and experiences in the life of Dahl make their way onto the pages of her children’s book, Krissie Comes Home.

Krissie Comes Home is an original tale, one never heard before, only lived out by Dahl. It draws heavily from the journeys she’s taken to six of the planet’s seven continents, autobiographical in nature. Without having ever encountered certain people in her life, she might’ve never discovered the inspiration to channel into a coherent narrative stories pulled from some of the sights her eyes have seen and sounds her ears have heard.

“It's my story of how I was impacted by my third-grade teacher who changed my life, and a librarian who introduced me to the world atlas and inspired me to become a world traveler,” Dahl said. “Luckily, as a dentist, I was able to afford to go on vacation, travel, [and] trips.”

After roughing out her book’s storyline throughout 25 revisions, her ideas came to fruition. It’s dedicated to the librarians of the world and Edgar Mitchell, a renowned astronaut who was part of the Apollo 14 space mission. She chose to honor him because of her reverence for his landing on the moon and subsequent exploration of consciousness through the establishment of the Institute of Noetic Sciences.

Dahl’s traveled to the Tibetan region of China, Australia, and New Zealand. She’s gone as both a tourist and a healthcare professional. Her protagonist, Krissie, adventures through her imagination, going out to space to step on the moon. From there, she’s awed by the oneness of Earth, and that’s a central theme in the book.

Dahl lives by a personal mission statement: to make a difference in the lives of others. She sought to create something inspirational, something that might help children come to better understand and respect themselves, one another, and the interconnectedness of the world in which we all live.

“I wanted to write a children's book. I was inspired by that vision that I have to make a difference in children's lives. I think that there's a lot of rhetoric and social context that can be confusing for children, and this book's theme is love, in a nutshell,” Dahl said.

Krissie Comes Home was released near the end of September, but Dahl’s only recently gotten around to promoting its publication. It’s self-published, in fact, the publisher being NorgeDale Publishing, another creation of hers. However, the illustrations within the book aren’t her own. The neatness in them comes from a local illustrator based out of Orion, Illinois, Paul Lange.

The reception Dahl’s received has been promising. She says some readers have even been brought to tears upon finishing reading her work.

“They were moved by the beauty of the ending of the book. They laughed and giggled at various parts, and will look up at me and smile and say, ‘Oh, I really like this one’—you know, the different illustrations,” Dahl said.

Dahl’s going to continue the promotion of Krissie Comes Home. She plans to do so by hosting book-signing events locally, having talked with individuals interested in scheduling them with her. She also has more compositions planned, like an additional idea for a children’s book about a character called Ladybug’s Meadow.

Those looking to purchase their own copy of Dahl’s Krissie Comes Home can visit Amazon, which might present the easiest route to finding it. Intrigued readers could search for it on her website, too, www.norgedalepublishing.com.

Dr. Christine Dahl posing with her children's book, Krissie Comes Home
Christine Dahl
Dr. Christine Dahl posing with her children's book, Krissie Comes Home

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