It was a premise Dolly Parton understood. If children need books, put books in their hands — and keep sending them, one carefully chosen story at a time.
In early 1995, that idea grew into Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library as a tribute to her father, Robert Lee Parton, who could not read or write. The program mails one free, age-appropriate book each month to enrolled children from birth until their fifth birthday.
In Arizona, it has helped thousands of children build home libraries, including families in rural communities where books and other early-learning resources may be harder to reach.
What began as a book-gifting program for children in her home county in Tennessee grew into an international literacy initiative.
“Before he passed away, my Daddy told me the Imagination Library was probably the most important thing I had ever done,” Parton wrote in a public letter about the program. “I can’t tell you how much that meant to me because I created the Imagination Library as a tribute to my Daddy.”
The program has distributed more than 300 million books internationally and now mails more than 3 million books each month, according to the Imagination Library.
Parton’s influence on literacy in Arizona
In Arizona, the program initially operated through local organizations serving individual communities. A statewide expansion began in 2022 after the Arizona Department of Economic Security’s Division of Child Care dedicated federal COVID-19 relief funding to early-childhood literacy.
Read On Arizona coordinated the expansion in partnership with the Dollywood Foundation, DES, the Arizona Department of Education and United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona.
“Dolly Parton was quoted as saying you can never get enough books into the hands of enough kids,” said Terri Clark, literacy director for Read On Arizona. “Read On Arizona was proud to play a role in expanding Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and helping more children, especially in rural parts of our state, receive books, build a home library and develop a love of reading. Dolly’s legacy as a literacy champion lives on with every book a child receives.”
At the time, the Imagination Library was serving about 11,000 children in selected Arizona communities. The expansion aimed to enroll as many as 7,000 additional children and reach 126 additional ZIP codes, primarily in rural and high-need areas.
Arizona exceeded that goal. By July 2024, more than 13,000 additional children had enrolled, more than doubling the number receiving books through the program. Another 200 early learning sites received collections of 28 children’s books.
The program’s availability still varies by ZIP code because local organizations must help fund the books and postage, publicize enrollment and administer the program.
“The real heroes of our story are the thousands of local organizations who have embraced my dream and made it their own,” Parton wrote. “They raise millions of dollars each year and wake up every day with a passion to make sure their kids have every opportunity to succeed.”
Currently, partners include First Things First regional councils, county library districts, United Way organizations, Rotary clubs, foundations and community donors.
Gila County embraces the program
“The world lost a true early childhood champion in Dolly Parton,” said First Things First CEO Melinda Gulick. “She is personally responsible for the distribution of almost 400 million books for children under age 5. It is an amazing legacy. She was a rare philanthropist personally committed to transforming early childhood systems.”
The First Things First Gila Regional Partnership Council has funded the program through the Gila County Library District. Its service area includes Globe, Payson, Miami, Pine-Strawberry, Tonto Basin, Young and other rural communities outside the San Carlos Apache and White Mountain Apache tribal regions.
“For many years, First Things First funded the Dolly Parton Imagination Library in Gila County, fostering early literacy skills for babies, toddlers and preschoolers, and contributing to families’ at-home libraries, where young children gained a love of books and families and caregivers could read those books to their children,” said Gulick.
Globe resident Carolyn Larsen enrolled both of her daughters in the program, including her younger daughter when she was just 4 weeks old.
“She has her own little library in our living room,” Larsen said of her older daughter in a First Things First regional report. “There’s a box full of all the books, and she has her little special area.”
Larsen said the books also supported her daughter’s developmental needs.
“She actually has a little bit of a speech delay, so the books are really great for us because they’re age appropriate, and we can work on some of her speech needs to help her,” she said.
For families in communities with fewer libraries, bookstores and early childhood resources, delivery to the home can be particularly valuable.
“It’s so great, especially for the rural communities that don’t have access to a lot of resources,” Larsen said. “And so, I feel very lucky to be a part of it and to have access to it.”
Reading throughout Arizona
Other Arizona affiliates have established programs in southern Arizona, the Verde Valley and the West Valley.
United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona has served as a local affiliate since 2012. During the 2022-23 program year, it helped to deliver 15,479 books to 1,380 children in 11 southern Arizona ZIP codes.
The Verde Valley Imagination Library serves children in communities including Camp Verde, Clarkdale, Cottonwood, Jerome, Rimrock and Sedona. A March 2026 report from Arizona Rotary District 5495 said the affiliate was serving more than 1,800 children each month.
The organization works with Verde Valley Medical Center to reach families shortly after a child is born.
“The hospital staff even goes as far as having the family fill out the program application before they leave the hospital, and the baby starts receiving books within a couple months,” said Lynette Prouty of the Rotary Club of Verde Valley-Cottonwood. “The child will receive a new book every month until they are five years old.”
In the West Valley, the Rotary Club of Surprise and Sun City West partnered with the Dollywood Foundation in 2025 to serve children in Surprise and El Mirage. Organizers initially planned for 300 children, but enrollment quickly surpassed 400.
Ron Klaphake, the local program coordinator, said the response from participating families showed the effect reached beyond the number of books distributed.
“I’ve got like 50 or 60 testimonial letters that I have here on file where the parents have suggested that it is so critical, and it’s such a big deal for the parents to see their kids happy,” Klaphake said.
Parton described inspiring children to love reading as her mission and said she hoped every child could grow up surrounded by books.
“It’s been quite a journey but we have so much more left to do,” she wrote. “Let’s share this dream that all children should grow up in a home full of books.”
Arizona families can check whether the Imagination Library is available in their ZIP code and enroll an eligible child atImaginationLibrary.com.
Editor’s note: A grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation made this story possible. The foundation awarded 15 newsrooms to pay for solutions-focused education reporters for two years. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.
Meet Stacy Stacy Mantle is joining the team at Independent Newsmedia, Inc. as an Education Solutions journalist, thanks to a grant from the Arizona Community Collaborative. She has a long history in education that ranges from teaching junior high and middle school to developing curriculum and standards-based assessments.
Community: A longtime advocate for animal welfare, Stacy is deeply involved in rescue efforts and volunteers with several nonprofit organizations.
Random Fact: Once upon a time, she shared her home with a pet coyote and two wolf hybrids. The experiences were wild enough to become the subject of her first book!
Education: She holds a BA in English with a minor in Political Science, a Post-baccalaureate in Secondary Education, and an MBA with a emphasis on Marketing.
Hobbies: In her spare time, Stacy writes fast-paced urban fantasy novels, crafts small-batch artisan soap, and is always up for hiking or off-roading through the Arizona wilderness with her husband of 23 years.
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