Dolly Parton's Imagination Library: How Free Books Helped My Son Fall in Love With Reading

The last week was a big one for my family. After a summer spent at home serving as my Junior Consultant, my youngest son, Carson, started kindergarten. Sending him off to school with his Bluey backpack was exciting and more than a little emotional.

More than just a life milestone, starting kindergarten is an especially big step for Carson. He was diagnosed with autism at age 3, but thanks to the amazingly kind, caring, and dedicated staff at our school district's Early Childhood Center, he enters kindergarten with a love of learning and being at school.

He's also starting kindergarten on an exceptionally strong academic footing. He loves math and reading, and enters kindergarten with reading skills far beyond his grade level. We owe a lot of that to an unexpected person: Dolly Parton.

Carson has always loved picking up books, so when we found out about Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, we had to sign up. Every month, we were sent a new book at no cost. Some books he took to right away. Some he looked at once and lost interest. But no matter the title, he was exposed to a constant stream of literature that helped spark his love of reading.

And then, last spring, we received a beautiful letter in the mail from the Imagination Library. It was time for kindergarten, and with it, time to graduate from the program. Dolly and her team shared her love for all kids in the program, and we felt that love every time we received a book in the mail.

Dolly Parton was so much more than a singer, and her philanthropy went far beyond sending books to kids. Her quiet, yet generous, support of medical research led to breakthroughs that saved millions of lives when the COVID vaccines were released. She was eager to support anything focused on education and was a dependable source of support following any kind of disaster.

What Dolly's Example Teaches Us About Giving That Lasts

As someone who spends my career helping nonprofits raise money, watching this play out in my own home was a good reminder of what makes philanthropy actually work. The Imagination Library has been mailing free, age-appropriate books to kids since 1995, and it has now sent more than 150 million of them across five countries. That kind of reach doesn't come from a single check. It comes from showing up every single month, for every single kid, for thirty years running.

It also didn't happen alone.

Dolly built the program by partnering with local libraries, community organizations, and funders in every place it operates, the same kind of trust based, community rooted partnership I believe should sit at the center of good fundraising work. She didn't just write a check and walk away. She built infrastructure that other people and organizations could plug into and help sustain.

Her support of Vanderbilt University Medical Center's research, which helped fund the early stage work behind the Moderna vaccine, followed the same pattern. It wasn't a single flashy gift. It was quiet, sustained support for people already doing hard work, given because she trusted them to do it well.

Yet in my family, all of that history and reach came down to something much smaller and much more personal: the soft, sweet voice of a child who discovered a love of reading, one free book at a time.

As we look back on the legacy of Dolly Parton, countless families have similar stories. That’s the mark of a true philanthropist - someone who gave joyfully as an expression of their love for others, and did it for the good of the cause instead of their own glory. 

The world will miss Dolly, but there’s so much we can learn from someone who made giving a core part of their life.

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