Ryal McMurry

Ryal McMurry is an educator, literacy advocate, and an author. He has been in education for twenty years. Teaching kids to read is his passion, and that is why his favorite job is Kindergarten Teacher! Though he has taught first and second grade and been the principal of two elementary schools, Kindergarten is where his heart is. There is no greater thrill than when a student's face lights up, and they realize that they can read!

Ryal is very proud of his work with Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. He has run the Otero County, NM program partner for almost fifteen years and was a founding member in 2011. He agrees with Dolly Parton's philosophy, "You can never get enough books into the hands of enough kids."

Ryal's first book was HAYLEY MILLS: DISNEY LEGEND, a filmography that Hayley Mills herself called "magnificent" and "a handbook." He is hard at work on his children's book series about GIDGET the cat. The first is that series is GIDGET GOES OUT, based on a story he wrote over 20 years ago! The second in the series was GIDGET GOES TO SCHOOL, and it definitely pulls on insights he gained as a classroom teacher. GIDGET GOES HOLLYWOOD was the third in the series released in July 2026.