As you’ve likely seen by now, Dolly Parton passed away this past Tuesday at age 80, so we’re going to revisit a Feel Good Friday post I wrote in September 2021 about Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.
The idea was deeply personal. Dolly's father never learned to read or write, and she often said she wanted every child to have the chance he didn't. The Imagination Library became the flagship program of the Dollywood Foundation, the nonprofit Dolly started in 1988 to keep kids in her home county in school, and it's since grown from one Tennessee county into a global movement supported by local partners everywhere it operates.
Here's how it works if you haven't come across it before: once a child is registered, they receive one specially selected, age-appropriate book every month, personally addressed to them, all the way until their fifth birthday. The titles are chosen by a Blue Ribbon Selection Committee of early childhood literacy experts, and the whole thing is free to families, funded through Dolly herself and local community partners in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland.
When I first wrote about this program, it had mailed just over 172 million books. By the end of 2025, that number had grown to more than 304 million books, with over 40 million going out in 2025 alone, a rate of roughly one book mailed every 0.78 seconds. The program is now celebrating 31 years of getting kids excited about reading, one mailbox at a time.
If you'd like to honor Dolly's memory, her family asked that donations be made to the Imagination Library to keep her promise of free books going to children who need them most. You can also check availability in your community to participate in the program. And while tributes are still coming in, take a moment to amplify this work on social media. Follow Imagination Library on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Rest in peace, Dolly.
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