Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

My daughter receives books through this program and I was curious how it was sustained at a $2.5/book wholesale cost.

Interestingly, the coordinating body that selects books, facilitates distribution, and negotiates wholesale pricing is the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, but per-book funding is actually entirely through local charities and so on. This means that where charities are unable to act as partners, children will not receive books, but it also means that the program can operate by growing and shrinking as local support (including from state and local government grants) comes online and goes offline while keeping the overhead for local partners low.

Dolly Parton came up with the initial local structure for her region in Tennessee and David Dotson of Dollywood scaled the operation using this decentralized model. Very impressive structure that makes this sustainable.

Here’s the interview where he talks about it: https://www.endbookdeserts.com/dolly-parton-imagination-libr...

In Tennessee hospitals a nurse, staff member, or authorized volunteer will swing by your room in the mother-baby unit and sign you up. Then you start receiving free books by mail each month until age 5. An amazing program by an amazing person!

I don't need Imagination Library. We are very well off for now, however, someone signed us up for it and I was pissed cause we can buy all this and not take away from someone who needs it. Then we received our first book. My 3 year old loves going to the mail with me and if there's a book, it makes him so happy he opens it and sits in his chair and just looks at it and asks for it to be read to him. He doesn't know about bank accounts or anything, all he cares about is books, his cozy (blanket), Buzz, and Elmo. We decided to keep it and donate to it and I think more people in our position should have services like this to hopefully ground them in a way you forget only by reminding by the smile and laughter of your child, then donate to them.

My 5 year old just got his last imagination library book. It showed up right after Dolly passed away.

There was a letter from Dolly to him that ended “I will always love you”. Made my wife tear up.

We should be more ambitious with the people we build.

These books are really nice quality. Anyone who has children should absolutely look into this. The content is thoughtful and diverse.

28.may.2023 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36100992 90 comments

I have a two year old and have been receiving Imagination Library books monthly since he was born. This is a really wonderful non-profit. It's easy to sign up, the books show up in your mailbox, and each one has a page written by an educator describing how to read it to your child. (Point out the dog, what noise does a dog make? How does the boy feel at the end? etc) Highly recommend!

We use it and my son always screen “Dolly!” When we get to her picture in the back jacket. Wonderful service from one of the best Americans to have ever lived.

For jewish themed books, PJ Library is a similar good service

We need more Dolly Partons.

Honest question and maybe it's because I grew up without books… What values do books have if you cannot read? I started to learn how to read at 6. Are those picture only books?

Getting books for almost 2 years now, we're so grateful to Dolly! Some very excellent books our child totally loves!

We weren't signed up but as a measure of the scale of this we still wound up with a couple of Imagination Library books through book exchanges or buying used online -- i.e. there are enough of these 300M books floating around that if you have a kid there's a good chance you run into them.

I like the sibling comment "We should be more ambitious with the people we build." -- there are so many great things people with some means can be doing!

We shall never look upon her like again.

—Sent from Dollywood

Getting age-appropriate books for your kid on a regular schedule is amazing. If you've got young kids (and you're in the US) get on it!

Dolly Parton was a beautiful spirit and my life was measurably improved by reading as a child so I donated $50 on her death. It's not much but I'm retired on a fixed income. I had to do something.

I've been reading these books to my kids for the last year and a half. Such a wonderful gift to so many children.

Because of Dolly, other billionaires have stepped up to fund similar free books per month programs. She had a truly outsized impact.

If you know of any kids under the age of six get them signed up. The books come addressed in their name monthly.

Which "today's news" are you referring to?

PJ Library has a similar program for age 0-8. (I contacted them and they’re fine with non-Jewish families participating, even though it’s aimed at Jewish families and their children.)

Related on the legend RIP and some talk about the Library:

Dolly Parton has died

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49438052

Dolly Parton is the one of the few people and ideas that both polarized sides still fiercely agree on, and it says a lot given the times. Her book program and other charitable work is a great legacy.

Today's news being....

If you like coffee, Dolly has a line via Community Coffee (which makes great coffee) called Cup of Ambition, and a portion of each sale goes to the Imagination Library.

https://www.communitycoffee.com/pages/dolly-partons-cup-of-a...

My son was in this program and got some wonderful books. When he aged out he got a nice note encouraging him to keep learning. Great program. Our current billionaire class could learn a lot.