The Imagination Library
What an honor for Books Uplift to be selected to shine a spotlight on Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Does it surprise you that this iconic figure in country music and philanthropy has launched an initiative to bring books to children? No, probably not.
Honestly, what can’t she do?
Dolly Parton grew up in Sevier County, Tenn. Parton, her 11 siblings, and her mother and father lived in a one-room cabin. Dolly’s father, Robert Lee Parton Sr., could neither read nor write, yet he ran businesses that were successful enough to support his family. Dolly has called her father one of the most intelligent people she has ever known.
Dolly’s admiration, love, and respect for her father inspired her to launch Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in 1995.
“Before he passed away, my daddy told me the Imagination Library was the most important thing I’ve ever done,” says Dolly Parton. She believes her father’s inability to read kept him from achieving all the things he wanted to do in life. “Inspiring kids to love to read became my passion,” she says. “Imagine a world where every child, regardless of their background, was surrounded by books, stories, and a love for reading.”
The mission of Imagination Library is to create a lifelong love of reading and inspire children to Dream More, Learn More, Care More, and Be More.
The way it works is quite impressive. The Imagination Library mails one free book a month to each child enrolled in the program. The eagerness of children and families to participate has resulted in the mailing of over 280 million books to children in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland.
The results? The Imagination Library has a profoundly positive impact on early childhood development and literacy skills.
“If you can read, you can teach yourself anything,” says Dolly. She credits all the hard work to the thousands of local partner charities and organizations that’ve embraced her mission and made it their own. “They wake up every day with a passion to make sure that the children in their community have every opportunity to succeed.”
The Imagination Library has won numerous awards, including the National Education Association Friends of Education Award. It’s fully funded by both Dolly Parton and local community partners in all five countries. Penguin Random House is the exclusive publisher of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. For more information, please visit Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
Images Courtesy of The Dolly Foundation.
What an amazing legacy – 280 million books sent to children all over. Can we ever know how much Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library changed lives?