Photo credit: Brendan Kownacki
“How does it feel to be called The Book Lady?” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden asked singer-songwriter, superstar and philanthropist Dolly Parton at the donation ceremony of the 100th millionth book to the Library of Congress’ Imagination Library and the announcement of a monthly reading program for young readers. “I do more homework now at night working on these programs than I ever did when I was in school,” laughed Parton. “It just goes to show you that you can’t judge a book by its cover.” She is, of course, referring to her outward, ‘painted lady’ look, as she calls it. “Dolly Parton’s work through her Imagination Library is awe-inspiring,” Hayden said. “They have counted the number of books given away – 100 million – but there is no way to truly quantify the impact this program has had on developing young readers across America and in other parts of the world. This is an extraordinary gift to humankind. The Library of Congress shares this passion for developing young readers and I am so pleased to announce these cooperative programs, which will provide an opportunity for children anywhere to connect with a fun, engaging reading experience.”
Dolly Parton
Dolly grew up in the smoky mountains of East Tennessee in a large family of 12 kids. “My dad was a hard-working man; he grew up in a family of 14 or 15 kids. My dad never had a chance to go to school and daddy couldn’t read or write but he was the smartest person that I’ve ever known so I wanted to do something special for him as the years went by. I wanted to do something special for him, you know, like in the Bible where it talks about honor thy father and mother. So I got my daddy involved with this program. He was so proud that the little children called me The Book Lady.”
Founded in 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book-gifting organization that has, to date, mailed 100 million books to children in Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and the United States. Each month, the program currently mails a specially selected, high-quality, age appropriate book to over 1 million registered children from birth until they start Kindergarten in participating communities. Thousands of local, sponsoring organizations provide funding and support to the program. Parton envisioned creating a lifelong love of reading in children, preparing them for school and inspiring them to dream. Recent studies suggest participation in the Imagination Library is positively and significantly associated with higher measures of early language development. Penguin Random House is the exclusive publisher for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
Dolly Parton
Not only does Dolly say she does some of her best thinking when reading, but that she reads at least 52 books a year. She gets her inspiration from “just looking at these little faces today. There’s such a whole wide world in every child and they’re going to make tings come true in their own little world, that’s why it’s so important they learn to read books.” The event ended with an explanation of a multi colored jacket that her Mom had made for her from scraps of fabric sent by friends and the inspiration of her book: Coat of Many Colors which she read to the group of young children on the floor attentively hanging on her every word “It’s about love, it’s about attitude, it’s about anti bullying,” she read with The Book Lady glasses on.
“Books are magic,” she said indicating she is looking forward to the billionth book!
