How Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is helping kids start reading when they’re very young

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, which mails a free age-appropriate book monthly to enrolled children from birth to age 5, had distributed more than 332 million books across all 50 states and four other countries by the time of Parton's death on August 25, 2026. An information science professor researching the program says it helps develop literacy and kindergarten readiness, particularly for lower-income families who typically have less access to books at home.

The program began modestly in 1995 in Parton's hometown of Sevier County, Tennessee, with an initial order of 1,760 books, inspired partly by her father's illiteracy. It has since expanded to 92 Native American communities, added bilingual and braille editions, and by 2024 reached 1 in 7 American children under age 5. Local partners, including libraries, schools and nonprofits, pay $2.60 per child monthly to cover costs, with books selected by a nonpartisan committee and mostly published by Penguin Random House.

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