The Imagination Library

I want to tell you about this wonderful program called the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.  At the beginning of the year a friend of mine clued me in to this program that will send your child a book a month for the first 5 years of his life.  What!?!  Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it?  So I signed up Canaan just to see if it would work, and low and behold a book showed up in my mailbox.  This was our first book:

Back in 1996 Ms. Parton herself launched the Imagination Library in her home county in Tennessee.   Her vision was to foster a love of reading in the preschool children in her county by providing them with specially selected, age appropriate, books free of charge.  She wanted children to be excited, not only would they get their own piece of mail but their imaginations would be kindled to start dreaming big dreams.  In 2000, Dolly expanded the vision and turned the Imagination Library into a replicable model.  Anyone willing to partner with her and support it locally would receive her help.  Today, the Library has over 1600 affiliates and sends books to almost 700,000 children and is not limited to the United States, it can be found in the UK, Canada and Australia as well.

Fortunately for us here in the far reaches of Burlington, we have a local sponsor. 

I think you know what you need to do.  Visit her website, sign up your child(ren), and patiently wait for the magic to arrive.  Once it does feel free to spend hours pouring over page after page with your little ones lost in the wonder of it all.