An Imagination Library. What a fantastic concept! And you’ll never guess who’s behind it: Dolly Parton – of all people!
An Imagination Library. What a fantastic concept! And you’ll never guess who’s behind it: Dolly Parton – of all people!
Of course where Dolly is concerned, imagination is not something one usually needs to any large degree, but it seems she is not just a big country voice and, um, other assets. The woman cared so much about getting young children in
America reading that she launched the Imagination Library in 1996 to ensure that all children had access to good stories and enjoyable books. And from humble beginnings in East Tennessee, it has spread across the US and Canada and even crossed the Atlantic to the United Kingdom.
Currently more than 1 600 local communities provide the Imagination Library to almost 700 000 children every month.
Dolly’s vision was to foster a love of reading among her county’s preschool children and their families by providing them with the gift of a specially selected book each month. By mailing high-quality, age-appropriate books directly to their homes, she wanted children to be excited about books and to feel the magic that books can create.
I can only imagine how eagerly those parcels are awaited and pounced upon and opened with glee – what a
wonderful way to create anticipation and fun around books. Moreover, the initiative helps to ensure that every child has books, regardless of their family’s income.
It is possible to link into the Imagination Library project on a local basis. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could get a South African celebrity or high-profile businessman to put their weight behind something like this? Or even just start it small in our own area?
Imagination is such an important thing to foster. We need to be able to imagine other realities, better futures, solutions for problems – without it we are stuck with what we have. Books and stories play a big role in developing imagination, so let’s also get creative about how we can unlock this for our children.
To learn more about this initiative and how it works, go towww.imaginationlibrary.com
