🌅 Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Hit a New Milestone

SOURCE

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library

WHAT TO KNOW

• This fall, as it celebrated 30 years of giving, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library surpassed a milestone with few parallels, donating its 300 millionth book to children in need. The Imagination Library donates 3.4 million high-quality books each month to children in five countries, including one in seven children under the age of five in the U.S.

WHY IT MATTERS

• Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is the flagship program of the Dollywood Foundation, which the legendary songstress founded in 1988 to inspire children in her home county to achieve academic success. Research by the Imagination Library shows the program is extremely popular among parents and community members where it's implemented, and could help improve home literacy environments and children’s attitudes toward reading.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• Research from major book publishers shows less than half of children ages 5-11 in the U.S. and U.K. are read aloud to daily by their parents. Which is bad, as other work shows reading aloud together is an overwhelmingly positive experience that both parents and children want to do more. One reason fewer parents and children read together today is that as screentime has gone up among kids over the past decade, reading for pleasure has fallen. Another reason is that many parents simply don’t enjoy reading aloud with their children.