Give a Child the Gift of Books
Join The Imagination Library!
Now available everywhere in Douglas County! Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program providing free books to children from birth to age five in participating communities, including Lawrence, Baldwin City, Eudora, and Lecompton. If you have a Douglas County zip code, your child is eligible!
Enroll now, and in 4-6 weeks, your child’s first book will arrive in the mail. Children receive one book per month until their fifth birthday.If you have more than one child, each will receive their own age-appropriate book. The titles are even rotated so siblings do not receive the same sets.
Sign up is quick and easy! Just click the link below to get your child started on the path to a love of reading and learning!
How You Can Help
Dolly Parton’s Dollywood Foundation provides support by partially subsidizing the books, sending out the books and maintaining a record-keeping database for local affiliates to use. However, individual communities must organize the effort to bring the Imagination Library to their area. More importantly local affiliates must provide the $2.10 per child to cover the monthly cost of each book mailed to their community’s children. In 2021, Kansas became a statewide partner and the Kansas Children’s Cabinet now underwrites half of the local affiliate cost. Locally, we must provide approximately $12.50 per child per year to offer the Imagination Library. Please consider giving the gift of reading and learning by sponsoring one or more children!
- $12.50: Sponsor a child for 1 year
- $25: Sponsor 2 children for 1 year
- $50: Sponsor 4 children for 1 year
- $125: Sponsor a child from birth to age 5
There is simply no limit on how far we can take this program and to what ends of the earth, but it is an absolute impossibility without your help.
SB6 & Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Unite
Locally, this grassroots effort began in the fall of 2017 when a local mom found a used Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library book at a book sale. She wrote a message on a Facebook Moms’ group about starting up an Imagination Library in Douglas County, and then we were off and running! Just few months later, we obtained fiscal sponsorship through Success by 6 and entered into an agreement with the Dollywood Foundation. We developed a leadership board with regular monthly meetings and raised awareness with our own Facebook page. In March 2020, we began offering the program to Lawrence residents and were excited to expand to all of Douglas County in May. After only eight months, the number of children registered has greatly exceeded projections. Our all-volunteer Leadership Board is dedicated to increasing literacy and includes a librarian, educators, students, and early intervention providers. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Douglas County has the full support of Success by 6 and its board, which is committed to ensuring this program’s growth.
About the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library
Inspired by her father’s inability to read and write, Dolly Parton started her Imagination Library in 1995 for the children within her home county. Today, her program spans the United States, United Kingtom, Canada, Australia and Republic of Ireland. It provides over 1 million free books each month to children around the world.
“When I was growing up in the hills of East Tennessee, I knew my dreams would come true. I know there are children in your community with their own dreams. They dream of becoming a doctor or an inventor or a minister. Who knows, maybe there is a little girl whose dream is to be a writer and singer. The seeds of these dreams are often found in books and the seeds you help plant in your community can grow across the world.”
Español de México 
English