SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Country music icon and philanthropist Dolly Parton has partnered with the state of Illinois to send free books to all young children.
Studies show a child's first five years of life are significant for brain development. Reading to children can expand and improve their vocabulary, and have emotional benefits as well.
Parton's Imagination Library program gifts "free, high-quality books to children from birth to age five, no matter a family's income." Braille and bilingual books are also available for families.
Parton founded the program in 1995, with books originally distributed to children in her childhood home of Sevier County, Tennessee. By 2000, the program proved such a success that she took it national. Three years later, the program had mailed approximately one million books to children across the United States.
The Imagination Library has since expanded globally, and is now offered in Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom. As of 2022, the program ships more than two million books monthly around the world.
The program covers all overhead expenses and negotiates a low, wholesale price of the books. States or other education partners pay the cost of the books themselves and shipping costs, which averages out to about $2.20 per child.
The 2024 Illinois budget allocates approximately $1.6 million to the Imagination Library program.