Dolly Parton Imagination Library

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Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free, high-quality books to children from birth to age five, 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.

• Improving early childhood literacy with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library creates opportunities for children to thrive so that they succeed in school and help their communities grow and prosper.
•  Supporting Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a powerful way to make a lasting impact on the lives of the children and families in our community.
•  Reading aloud to children at a young age can positively impact their brain development: When preschool children listen to stories, it activates the areas of their brains that are associated with processing images and narrative comprehension. – Pediatrics-Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
• 60% of the kindergartners in neighborhoods where children did poorly in school did not own a single book. – Patterns of Book Ownership and Reading by D. Feitelson and Z. Goldstein
• Investment in high-quality early childhood programs for at-risk children from birth to age five delivers a 7-10% annual return on investment through improved education, health, social and economic outcomes, increased productivity and the reduced need for social spending.
•  One of the most important predictors of graduation from high school is reading proficiently by the end of third grade. – The Children’s Reading Foundation
•  A long-term study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that students who were not proficient in reading by the end of third grade were four times more likely to drop out of high school than proficient readers.

By supporting the Chesapeake Public Library Foundation's Dolly Parton Imagination Library, you are supporting the future economic vitality of Chesapeake.