Dolly Parton's Program Sends Children One Book Per Month From Birth To Age 5

Feb 01, 2020 by apost team

Dolly Parton wants every child to have enough books. She has developed a program that will mail you a new age-appropriate child's book every single month from birth to age five. There are no fees, no sneaky catch, and no obligations other than to sign up.

She started the program in 1995, and since then, they have mailed out an estimated 80 million books. The books go around the world to the major English-speaking countries, namely the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, and the Republic of Ireland. More than one million children have benefited from their free books.The program is called Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

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The books are selected by the Blue Ribbon Book Selection Committee, a panel of early childhood literacy experts. Some studies have shown that children that participated in the program had higher measures on language development and math than children that didn't.

Dolly Parton says she was inspired to start the program after observing her father's struggles due to his inability to read. Currently, an estimated 20% of the adult US population cannot read, and 50% cannot understand a book written at the 8th-grade-level (generally around age 13 or 14).

Individuals who cannot read or who cannot read well suffer. They tend to have higher rates of unemployment, have lower incomes, and even suffer from health issues because they can't read the instructions on containers of medications. In addition, their children often grow up to be poor readers as well, contributing to inter-generational poverty.

If you know anyone who could benefit from this program, tell them about this story. Here is the link to sign up for the Imagination Library.

Signing up is easy. Simply go to their website and enter your mailing address, then follow the instructions. It is, however, currently not available in every single area around the world.