Before September ends, I want to take a moment to remember Dolly Parton. She is not just a musician, entertainer, and cultural icon, but as someone who understood something incredibly simple:

A child with a book has a little more possibility in front of them.

For more than 30 years, Dolly built a program that puts a book in a child’s hands every single month. And somehow, that feels like exactly the kind of legacy worth talking about. I grew up on Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley Twins, and R.L. Stine. Books were an escape, a comfort, a source of adventure, and sometimes the best company a kid could ask for.  Dolly Parton understood that. She also understood that not every child grows up surrounded by books, that’s where the story of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library begins.

It started with her dad

In 1995, Dolly started mailing free books to kids in her home county in Tennessee. She did it in honor of her father, a man who couldn’t read or write but whom she called the smartest man she knew. He saw what the program was becoming before he passed, and he told her it was probably the most important thing she had ever done.

(Excuse me while I go find a tissue. Okay, I’m back.)

How the Imagination Library works

Here’s the genius of it: every enrolled child gets one free, high-quality, age-appropriate book in the mail every month, from birth until age five. A child enrolled from birth ends up with a 60-book home library before kindergarten, with their name on every mailing label. And there is never a cost to the family.

Some numbers to sit with:

– 332 million+ books gifted since 1995

– 3.5 million books mailed every month

– 1 in 6 U.S. children under five are enrolled

– 5 countries: the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and Ireland

If you’re a book lover, you know that feeling of getting a package with a book in it. Now imagine being three years old and the package has your name on it.

How it keeps going (and why it needs us)

The good news: the books aren’t stopping. The Imagination Library runs through The Dollywood Foundation and a network of local partners, so it was built to outlast any one person. The  foundation covers the overhead and negotiates book prices. Local partners raise money to cover the books and postage for kids in their area. These partners include libraries, United Ways, school districts, co-ops and community foundations.

The honest truth: it’s local funding that keeps a community enrolled. When Maine lost its state funding, its statewide program ended. When Missouri’s state budget was cut, the state stopped accepting new applications, and its state-funded program’s future is now uncertain.

For more than 30 years, Dolly has built a program that puts a book in a child’s hands every single month. Her name is on it — but local support is what actually gets it into the mailbox.

So here’s where you and I come in.

Pick one. Pick all six. Every single one helps.

1. Enroll a little one (it’s free)

Have a child under five in your life? Go to imaginationlibrary.com and enter your ZIP code to see if your area is covered. Share it with new parents, your group chats and your local mom groups.

2. Donate to your local program

Find your area’s local partner on the Imagination Library site and give directly to them. That’s where your dollars become books for kids near you. The Cedar Rapids Public Library in Iowa, for example, says about $30 covers one child’s books and postage for a whole year. Costs vary by area, but that’s roughly the price of two hardcovers for 12 books.

3. Give in Dolly’s honor

Her family asked for donations to the Imagination Library in place of flowers. If you’ve been looking for a way to say thank you, this is it.

4. Start or save a program where there isn’t one

If your ZIP code isn’t covered, or your state lost funding, reach out to your library, school district, United Way or local officials about becoming a partner. If your area isn’t covered, contact your local library, school district, United Way or community foundation and ask whether they are exploring an Imagination Library partnership or local funding.

5. Spread the word

Share this post, or tell one new parent about it this week. It costs nothing, and it might put a 60-book library in a child’s home.

6. Read to a kid

Pick your favorite picture book, do the silly voices and commit to the bit. Dolly would approve.

Enroll or donate at imaginationlibrary.com

The book that keeps coming

My favorite thing about the Imagination Library is that it’s a series. It’s not one gift. It’s a book every month, for five years, the same way my childhood series kept me coming back to reading. Dolly understood that a love of reading isn’t built in a day. It’s built one mailbox at a time.

She’s not here to see the next 332 million books go out, but we can make sure they do.

With love and a full mailbox,

LitHaven