Imagination Library Denver

Program Overview

In 1996, country legend Dolly Parton launched an exciting effort, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library (DPIL), to benefit the children of her home county in East Tennessee. Dolly's vision was to foster a love of reading among the county's preschool children and their families by providing them with the gift of a specially selected book each month. In 2000, the program became available for replication to any community willing to partner to champion it locally. Since the initial program launch in the United States, DPIL has gone from distributing just a few dozen books to more than 161,000,000 nationwide. Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is designed to help families create home libraries, establish reading routines and encourage literacy activities.

In 2015, the Imagination Library Denver (ILD) launched a pilot program with 30 children at Family Star Montessori and four dedicated board members. ILD has now expanded into 32% of Denver's neighborhoods with a presence in 100% of City and County zip codes.
The goal of Imagination Library Denver is to build a love of reading, provide equitable access to developmentally-appropriate books, and promote kindergarten readiness. ILD accomplishes this goal through a high-quality, effective book gifting program. Each month, ILD mails a brand new book to each registered child until their fifth birthday at no cost to families.
Imagination Library is backed by research and proven to increase early childhood literacy by providing age-appropriate books, encouraging excitement about books, and providing a foundation for kindergarten readiness and a successful educational journey.
Reading tips and suggestions are included in each book to introduce parents on how to guide their child's reading comprehension, including serve and return, phonetics, rhyming, sight words, connecting with pictures with words and sounds. These educational tools give parents the confidence to share their love of reading.
Since launching, just five years ago, Imagination Library of Denver (ILD) has mailed more than 48,500 dynamic, diverse, and age-appropriate books to more than 2,000 families, and has graduated more than 1,100 students who exhibited kindergarten readiness based on assessments. Through a yearly survey, ILD researchers have found that 73% of caregivers referred to the program as "excellent" and have remarked on the effect that the program has had on their children's literacy and reading comprehension. Further research has shown that the Imagination Library significantly improves early childhood literacy for children enrolled in the program by at least 29%.

Cost Info

Student and Volunteer Success Stories

"Dear Paradies Lagardere,Thank you for sponsoring the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. My son absolutely loves his Dolly Books and I can see them helping to facilitate a love of reading. A recent book, "I just want to Say Goodnight' made him jump out of bed with excitement. When he recognized himself in the character and opened up a whole new way to enjoy reading. Thank you for supporting this great program!"

- The Bernstein Family