Arizona Tribune - Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library leaves global children’s reading legacy

Parton died on August 25. She was widely known for songs including “Jolene”, “Coat of Many Colors” and “I Will Always Love You”, but she also spent decades promoting early literacy in the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and Ireland.

She established the Imagination Library in Tennessee in 1995 to honour her father, who grew up without access to books. Families could register without charge and receive one carefully selected book each month until a child turned five. Early-childhood literacy specialists curated stories from around the world. The programme reported 332.4 million books sent since its launch, while the article described Parton as having donated about 300 million. She also co-wrote the “Billy the Kid” children’s series with Erica S. Perl.

Books associated with Parton’s reading interests included Alexandre Dumas’s “The Count of Monte Cristo”, the story of Edmond Dantès’s wrongful imprisonment, escape and revenge; John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”, following the Joad family from Dust Bowl Oklahoma to California; and Sara Gruen’s “Water for Elephants”, in which an elderly Jacob Jankowski recalls his life with a travelling circus.

The list also included Lee Smith’s multi-generational Appalachian novel “Oral History”, told through the voices and dialects of the Cantrell family, and Adriana Trigiani’s “Big Stone Gap”, about Virginia pharmacist Ave Maria Mulligan confronting revelations, relationships and change. Together with the Imagination Library, the selection reflects a literary legacy built alongside Parton’s music.

N.Mitchell--AT