2,000-plus Pima County kids get free books through Dolly Parton's program

Was it “Jolene?” … “9 to 5?” … “I Will Always Love You?”

Maybe, but millions of American families might choose “None of the Above,” because for them Dolly’s biggest hit has been the book program that sends their preschoolers a free book every month until she or he turns 5.

Welcome to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which ships more than 2 million free books a month to kids living in all 50 states and five other countries. Again: free. Every month. For up to five years.

Hello, Dolly!

The Library has some 25,000 young clients in Arizona, more than 2,000 of them in Pima County — where the program has been co-sponsored by United Way of Tucson since 2011.

“Don’t you wish we had something like this when we were kids?” asked Allison Titcomb, chief impact officer at United Way. “What an incredible gift to our young families.”

Established in 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library began as a resource for children in Sevier County, Tennessee, where she was raised.

By 2004, the program was serving the entire state, and now? Like those first kids in Sevierville, the organization is all grown up.

The Imagination Library has become a multi-national partnership between the Dollywood Foundation — whose sole focus is the book program — and local sponsors in each of the areas it serves.

Those partners are generally libraries, nonprofits or school districts, and each tailors the program to suit the community’s own resources and needs.

The basics are, well, basic: Local partners are asked to contribute $2.60 a month for each child enrolled in the program. The foundation does the rest, from selecting and purchasing the books to ensuring their safe delivery to all 2 million young readers every month.

“Our promise is that we will provide high-quality, age-appropriate new books to as many kids as we can squeeze into the program,” Regional Director Michelle Anthony said from Denver. “The books change every year — a panel of early childhood literacy people pick the titles — but the first book a child receives is always ‘The Little Engine That Could.’ When he or she ages out at 5, the last book is always ‘Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come.’ In between, every book is a surprise.’”

Two books a year are bilingual, with text both in English and a second language, and every new book comes personalized, with the child’s name stickered on the back cover.

“Our mission is to inspire a love of books and reading, whether you live in a blue house or green house, wherever you might be,” Anthony said. “Every child deserves a chance to grow up with books.”

Imagination Library first came to Arizona in 2009, with pilot programs in Graham and Greenlee Counties. Today, there are 48 programs running in areas throughout the state.

Here in Pima County, the focus is on rural areas and neighborhoods with limited access to books.

More specifically, new enrollments are being accepted from 12 area ZIP Codes, which can be found at unitedwaytucson.org.

“Ideally, we would have enough funding to offer the program all over the county,” Titcomb said, “but right now we’re looking at towns like Ajo, Sells and Catalina, and Tucson neighborhoods with limited access to libraries and bookstores. If you live in one of those ZIP Codes and have young kids, you can enroll on our website in less than 90 seconds. Please do!”

The Imagination Library is one of several such initiatives supported by United Way of Tucson, which for years has focused on early childhood literacy.

Another is the My Summer Library program, which invites students to select 12 free books to read over the summer.

Local agencies such as Make Way for Books, Literacy Connects and Books for Classrooms are also on the list.

“Studies all show the connection between the number of books in the home and how students do later on,” Titcomb said. “What’s the old cliché, we learn to read so we can read to learn? It’s still true, maybe more now than ever.”

In her 2020 memoir, “Songteller,” Parton put it this way:

“If we can teach children to read, we can help them dream, and when they can dream? Well, they can become whoever they want to be.”

Thanks to Dolly, there’s a whole lot of dreamin’ going on.

Interestingly, her book program was inspired in large part by a man who couldn’t read: her late father, Robert Parton.

One of 15 brothers and sisters growing up on a farm in rural Tennessee, he was needed in the fields. There wasn’t much time for school.

“Daddy was the smartest man I’ve ever known,” Dolly said in her book, “but he was always embarrassed that he couldn’t read or write. When I was first starting Imagination Library, I had to talk him into helping me, but he loved it … especially when he heard kids call me the Book Lady. Deep down I think he was prouder of me for that than anything I ever did.”

Footnotes

• United Way of Tucson would welcome donors and funders who would like to grow the Imagination Library program in Pima County. For more information, visit unitedwaytucson.org or email imaginationlibrary@unitedwaytucson.org.
• Stacks Book Club, a vibrant part of Oro Valley Marketplace the last two years, has announced plans to open a second location in midtown Tucson. The address will be 2920 E. Broadway, near Broadway Village Center and Country Club Road. Owners Crispin and Lizzy Jeffrey-Franco said the new space will open early next year.
• The University of Arizona Poetry Center will present Pulitzer Prize finalist Jennifer Chang the evening of Sept. 4 at 7 p.m. It will be the center’s first major program of the new academic year. For more, visit poetry.arizona.edu.