This story has been updated to clarify information about Porter-Leath’s Books From Birth program as reflected in the editor’s note at the bottom of the story.
Ben Sutton still recalls the anticipation he felt as a young child when he got a new book. He remembers looking out the window and seeing the mail truck, then running outside to grab a package labeled directly to him. Eagerly, he opened it: In it was “The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush”, delivered to him by the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.
For children like Sutton, free books from the Imagination Library were thrilling and inspiring. Experts say books are an important part of childhood development. They spark imagination and curiosity and help children learn how to deal with emotions that can be confusing.
The Imagination Library, founded by country singer Dolly Parton, who died last month at age 80, set a goal to increase literacy among young children by giving them access to free books. The program distributes a book every month to participating children five and younger. According to nonprofit Porter-Leath, the Shelby County affiliate of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, more than 30,000 children currently are enrolled in the program. Porter-Leath has distributed more than 4.5 million books here since 2017.
“The Imagination Library means everything,’’ said Sutton, 23, a journalism major at the University of Memphis. “When you’re so young, you take reading for granted, but the library is such a beautiful thing, and I’ve seen not just me, but my siblings, nieces, and nephews be able to take part in the Imagination Library. We’re such big readers in the family, in large part due to the sheer amount of books we were able to get our hands on.”
The Imagination Library began operating in Shelby County in 2005. Porter-Leath took over the local partnership in 2017 and operates it through its Books From Birth program.
Nationally, the Imagination Library has faced funding cuts in several states — the program all but imploded in Maine — but officials say Shelby County’s affiliate is well-positioned to meet funding challenges.
Fifty percent of its funding and mailing costs comes from the Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation and the other 50% comes from Porter-Leath’s Books From Birth program through a range of small donations, legacy donors, local partnerships and events. The Dollywood Foundation selects age-appropriate books for the Imagination Library and distributes them through the mail.
The program costs Porter-Leath $25 a year for every child enrolled, said Books From Birth Director Wynett Jones. With over 30,000 children enrolled, Porter Leath spends about $750,000 a year on its end, Jones said. However, this could soon change as Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) and Tennessee Senator Bo Watson (R- Hixson) have pledged to fully fund the program in 2027. Though still waiting on details, Jones believes this will allow Porter-Leath to expand the Books From Birth program.
When a baby is born in Shelby County, parents receive a form in their hospital discharge packet asking if they would like to sign up for the Imagination Library, according to Jones. After a parent signs up, the first book delivered typically takes ten weeks and will be “The Little Engine That Could”. After the first month, books are chosen by a selection committee with different themes for each age group.
“I remember ‘Llama Llama Red Pajama’; I think it was one of my first books, but I remember keeping it until I was 13 because it meant so much to me,’’ said Simone Oliver, a mechanical engineering student at the UofM. “Those books sparked my love for reading because I really was an avid reader, especially in my years of high school. I’m glad that I could have some of that shared experience of how (Dolly Parton) helped kids like me, who didn’t really have it all when they were kids, learn to read.”
Parton often told interviewers her father inspired her to found her free-books program. A sharecropper and construction worker who raised 12 children in East Tennessee’s hardscrabble Smoky Mountains, Robert Lee Parton was “one of the smartest people I’d ever known,” yet he couldn’t read, Dolly Parton said.
A 20-year study by the University of Nevada, Reno found that the number of books in a home has a major effect on educational attainment. The results showed that children in homes with more than 500 books, on average, progress 2.4 years further in education in the U.S. But even having 20 books can “significantly” boost a student’s progress, the study found.
“One of the things that has to be taught is print awareness,” said Tammy Jones, an associate professor of teaching in the English Department at the UofM. “So, if students come to kindergarten and they have no print awareness — like they don’t understand that a book is something, that the print runs this way, that it has words, words have meaning, you turn the page — if a kindergarten teacher has to spend a lot of time teaching the class those skills, it puts (students) behind. In English 1010, one of my first assignments is on a student’s literacy narrative. I’d probably say 80 percent of my students write about the importance of those books from the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. They all mention specific books that were important to them or books that made them go to the library.”
Currently, the Imagination Library distributes books to about 30,000 families in Shelby County, making Porter-Leath is the second-largest affiliate of the library in the United States, according to Jones.
“(Dolly’s) Imagination Library sparked my interest in reading. I didn’t start off reading early on; I started off reading later in life, and it was helpful in pushing me to go for literacy,” said Kenabie Howard, a sociology major at the UofM. “The Imagination Library affected me in terms of wanting to be a helpful hand in the community, and a helpful hand to children.”
The Imagination Library has played a role in helping people find their interests: Howard attributes the program to her pursuit of a sociology major. Sutton attributes the program to his love of reading and wanting to be a writer. Oliver also attributed the program to her love of reading.
The Imagination Library “led me to journalism and tell stories. I feel like I owe part of that to Dolly Parton at the very least,” Sutton said.
The Imagination Library started in 1995, then serving only Sevier County in East Tennessee. It has expanded globally since, spreading across the U.S. beginning in 2000 and going statewide in Tennessee in 2004. The program expanded to Canada in 2006, the U.K. in 2007, Australia in 2013, and Ireland in 2019. In 2024, one in seven children under five in the United States had received a book from the Imagination Library.
“I believe the importance of the Imagination Library is the access it gives young kids everywhere to books no matter who or where they are,” Sutton said. “Literacy and media literacy are key in developing a young person’s mind, and honestly, more so, it’s just really nice to be able to have something to read.”
Correction: In an earlier version of this story, the name of Porter-Leath’s Books From Birth Director Wynett Jones was misspelled due to an editing error. Also, Books from Birth has provided more than 4.5 million books to children since the program came to Porter-Leath in 2017. Finally, to clarify, the Dollywood Foundation selects age-appropriate books for the Imagination Library and distributes them through the mail.
