Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free, high-quality books to children from birth until they begin school, no matter their family’s income.
After launching in 1995, the program grew quickly. First books were only distributed to children living in Sevier County, Tennessee where Dolly grew up. It became such a success that in 2000 a national replication effort was underway. By 2003, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library had mailed one million books. It would prove to be the first of many millions of books sent to children around the world.
Dolly’s home state of Tennessee pledged to pursue state-wide coverage in 2004 and global expansion was on the horizon. After the United States, the program launched in Canada in 2006 followed by the United Kingdom in 2007 and Australia joined in 2013.
At the time of writing: the total number of books mailed is: 174,670,526
How does the Imagination Library work?
All children enrolled in the Imagination Library receive a book in the post every month until their 5th birthday. Every book is personally addressed to each individual child. All titles in the Imagination Library are published by Penguin Random House and carefully selected by a panel of experts in early childhood literacy and reading.
A child enrolled from birth to their fifth birthday will build their own home library of up to 60 books. The books are posted to the child at a cost of £2.08 this is excellent value for money.
The programme is completely free for children and their families.
Cleethorpes, in Rotary District of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire started in 2014 after receiving the first Global Grant from Rotary Foundation into the UK
Cleethorpes are involved with 16 primary schools and nurseries in North East Lincolnshire. Since 2014, our club send over 25,000 books to preschool children across Grimsby and Cleethorpes.