As of Monday, September 25th, 2023, Dolly Parton has extended her Imagination Library to Kern County to extend her literary reach.
Dolly Parton is an American singer and songwriter, known for her decades-long career in country music. With a career spanning 50 years, she has been described as a “country music legend,” selling more than 100 million record copies worldwide.
The Imagination Library was founded by Dolly Parton in 1995.
“Inspiring kids to love to read became my mission. In the beginning, my hope was simply to inspire the children in my home county but here we are today with a worldwide program that gives a book a month to well over 1 million children,” Dolly Parton wrote in her letter published on the Imaginary Library website.
The outcome of the launch of the Imagination Library has revealed that the organization is very popular in the communities where it is implemented and it shows promise of promoting changes in children’s attitudes towards their literacy. These results were derived by local researchers hired by The Dollywood Foundation, a non-profit organization that strives to share the life and legacy of Dolly Parton.
On average, California academic institutions receive 13% less funding than other states, causing even the most high-achieving students to score lower on standardized tests than their counterparts with better funding.
In Kern County alone, 47.6% of high school graduates in 2019 did not meet the English Language Arts requirement, exacerbating the high illiteracy rate in the county, according to SouthKernSol.
Children aged from birth to five years old can receive books from the program. The Imagination Library will provide high-quality, mail-free books to families in Kern County, regardless of their financial status. This program will allow families to reach all developmental marks more easily, breaking down all of the barriers preventing parents from accessing books for their children.
How to sign up for the Imagination Library
There are three ways to sign up for the Imagination Library program.
- Online: This option allows parents to register their children via the official Imagination Library registration website. The children must be approved before they can get books mailed to them.
- On location: This option allows parents to register their children at official locations, like the Kern County Library.
- Mail-in: This option allows parents to upload a printable registration form, in PDF format, to an authorized address they specify. Again, this can be the Kern County Library.
For more information about the organization, visit Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
