Creative Stories: Dolly Parton and The Imagination Library

Country music star Dolly Parton wanted to find a way to honor her father.

Although he was ‘the smartest man’ she knew, he never learned to read and write – and Dolly knew that kept him from achieving his dreams.

Dolly grew up in rural Appalachia in Tennessee, and wanted to help children in her hometown develop a love of reading. She wanted to give them something her father never had: early access to books.

“If you can read, even if you can't afford education, you can go on and learn about anything you want to know,” Dolly said.

“So I just think that it's important for kids to be encouraged to read, to dream, and to plan for a better life and better future.”

So in 1995, Dolly created the Imagination Library.

The Imagination Library is a book-gifting program that mails free books to children each month from birth until they turn five years old, no matter their family’s income. The program started out sending 1500 books a month, but quickly grew across Tennessee and the United States. By 2003, Dolly’s Imagination Library had given away one million books.

The Imagination Library then spread to other countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Ireland. It has become one of the largest children’s literacy programs in the world, and fostered a love of books and reading with children and their families.

By 2016, Dolly’s initiative that started with 1500 children had grown to helping more than one million children each month.

"Inspiring kids to love to read became my mission," Dolly said.

The Imagination Library has given away more than 100 million books, and continues to grow. In 2019, they gifted more than 17.1 million books to children.

Despite being the best-selling female country music artist of all time, The Imagination Library has made Dolly Parton ‘The Book Lady’ to millions of children.

“The older I get, the more appreciative I seem to be of the 'Book Lady' title,” she said. “It makes me feel like I have done something good with my life and with my success.”