The Imagination Library
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails a free book every month to eligible children from birth to age 5. Inspired by her father’s inability to read and write, Dolly started the Imagination Library in 1995 for the children within her home county in East Tennessee. Today, the Imagination Library operates in participating communities across five countries.
To participate, each community must have a local non-profit affiliate to enroll children and cover the wholesale cost of the books and shipping fees -- about $30 per child per year.
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Addison County Readers is the oldest and largest Imagination Library affiliate in Vermont with approximately 1,100 children enrolled.
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If you live in Addison County, click the blue button above to register for books today. To see if the Imagination Library is available in other communities, visit the DPIL website.
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Children enrolled in the Imagination Library at birth will receive 60 books by the time they enter kindergarten.
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Books at Birth
This program helps ACR connect with families with newborns before they leave Porter Hospital. Nursing staff at the Birthing Center offers each Addison County family a free ACR gift bag containing a welcome letter, a children's book, and a registration brochure for the Imagination Library. Approximately 25 bags are given out each month.
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Funding for Books at Birth is provided by the Walter Cerf Community Fund.