Laura Gibson’s daughter doesn’t know Dolly Parton through her music. Instead, to her, Parton is the person who sends her new books.
Each month, more than 13,000 children in Hamilton County — ages birth to 5 — receive a free book in the mail from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. For Sage Dietrick, 2 1/2, getting a book in the mail with her name on it is one of her favorite things, Gibson, her mother, said.
“It just invites her into the process of a little bit of ownership,” Gibson said in an interview. “They come to our house directly addressed to her, so she knows that they are hers. Then, it’s just a continuation of this is a really important part of our life, and I want books to be a really important part of her personhood. I see her finding herself in her stories.”
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As the program celebrates 20 years of distributing free books to children in Hamilton County, Director Lesa Witt is pushing to get every eligible child enrolled. The earlier children are engaged, Witt said, the better off they are in terms of their education performance and path.
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Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library celebrates 20 years of sending free books to Hamilton County children
“We want every child to be able to have the same opportunities and to be able to use the Imagination Library to advance their literacy skills and to grow and to be able to advance in their educational needs,” she said in an interview. “Being able to read is a vital foundational point for every child and to be able to potentially graduate. When they get into the later years in high school, it’s very important to have that strong foundation and to be able to communicate well.”
The Imagination Library was founded by Parton in her home county of Sevier in 1995 to inspire a love of reading and learning in children, and it expanded to Hamilton County in 2004. Signal Centers has managed the local book giveaway program since 2021. It was previously led by the United Way of Greater Chattanooga.
Sage has been receiving books from the Imagination Library since birth, and Gibson said she appreciates that the books have been mindful about children’s developmental stages as her daughter grows up. The books have transitioned from focusing on words and rhyming to becoming more story- and character-oriented, which Gibson said has allowed her to go from helping her daughter develop skills, like recognizing turning pages, to talking and asking questions about the content of the book.
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The program sends age-appropriate books to children regardless of the family’s income.
“To get a new book in front of a kid every single month for five years of their life, that’s a huge library that the parents never have to worry about paying for,” Gibson said. “It’s such a relief as a parent who has to be really mindful of costs and things like that to know that she has access to new books and to exciting stories as she grows, and it’s not something that I have to worry about.”
Contact Shannon Coan at scoan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6396.