Dolly Parton gave the world songs people could carry for a lifetime. She also gave millions of children something small enough to hold in two hands and big enough to change a life: a first book of their own.
In 1995, she started Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in her home county in East Tennessee, inspired by her father’s inability to read and write. What began with local preschool children grew into a book-gifting program that now reaches families across five countries. Every month, more than three million free, age-appropriate books are mailed to children from birth to age five, regardless of their family’s income.