Community Partnership of Alabama Inc

IMAGINATION LIBRARY

United Way of Central Alabama and the Junior League of Birmingham are partners in Imagination Library, an early literacy initiative to put books in the hands of young children in Central Alabama, helping prepare them for kindergarten. Imagination Library was founded by Dolly Parton and has spread to more than 1,600 communities. The program provides books at no-cost to children in at-risk neighborhoods placing emphasis in communities where they are needed the most. Learn more

Each month, from birth to age 5, enrolled children receive a free age-appropriate book in the mail to help them develop an early love of reading. To date, more than 16,000 children in Central Alabama have received books from this effort.  

• Imagination Library costs about $30 per child per year, or $150 from birth to age five. Over the course of the program a child can receive 72 books.


• The books are new, age-appropriate books selected by a team of early childhood education experts appointed by the Dollywood Foundation.


• The first book is The Little Engine that Could and as the five year old enters kindergarten, the last book is Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come!


• The books encourage families to read together promoting important family time and helping young children begin to learn sounds, shapes and letters.

Imagination Library History
Dolly Parton began Imagination Library in her home state of Tennessee in 1996 because she believed in the importance of children having books in their home. The popular initiative has since spread to hundreds of communities. The Dollywood Foundation funds administration costs for the program.

Since the initial program launch in the United States, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has gone from just a few dozen books to nearly 40,000,000 books mailed to children in the United States, into Canada and across the proverbial pond into the United Kingdom! Currently over 1600 local communities provide the Imagination Library to almost 700,000 children each and every month. Already statistics and independent reports have shown Dolly Parton's Imagination Library drastically improves early childhood literacy for children enrolled in the program. Further studies have shown improved scores during early literacy testing.

The books are new, age-appropriate books selected by a team of early childhood education experts appointed by the Dollywood Foundation. Each June, the committee sorts through a world of possibilities to select a quality, diverse and universal collection of titles. There are 72 books in all if the child is registered at birth.

Age 0 to 1 receive books that are bright, with big drawings, and colorful. Some are board books, but all are simple, easy to use, with minimal text.  

Age 1 to 2 receive books that have repetition and predictability. Some show children doing familiar things. Others teach about colors, letters or numbers.

 
Age 2 to 3 receive books that help them understand feelings and resolve issues. Some books may have no words and they can create their own story.

Age 3 to 4 receive books that are more complex and feature the diversity of others. There are nursery rhymes, poems, and lots of good humor.

Age 4 to 5 receive books with more details (hero, complication, resolution) and show that is okay to be different. Other stories address school preparation and readiness.