Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is now available throughout the entire state of Illinois.

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Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

If you haven't heard of the Imagination Library, it's truly an incredible organization that's dedicated to getting books into the hands of kids.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is dedicated to inspiring a love of reading by gifting books free of charge to children from birth to age five, through funding shared by Dolly Parton and local community partners in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Republic of Ireland.

Inspired by her father’s inability to read and write Dolly started her Imagination Library in 1995 for the children within her home county. Today, her program spans five countries and gifts over 2 million free books each month to children around the world.

 

Age-appropriate books for Kids Under 5

When my son was born, in the packet from the hospital they had a little reminder to sign him up for the Imagination Library.  So I went online and signing him up was easy, and now every month he receives a free, age-appropriate book and we love it. For instance, Riley has recently been really into counting and learning numbers, and this month's book was a book about counting birds, another book was about colors and it came right as we were working on learning colors, so it has been spot-on for us and I can't recommend the Imagination Library enough!

If you want to see if the Imagination Library is available in your area and get your kids signed up, you can find all of that information through ImaginationLibrary.com.

Imagination Library Expanding in Illinois

The Imagination Library is constantly expanding since the Imagination Library teams up with local affiliates to bring the program to different towns, it isn't everywhere just yet. However, the state of Illinois launched a partnership with the Imagination Library to make the program available statewide.

According to WSIU, on December 5th Illinois Governor JB Pritzker announced the official launch of the state’s partnership with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library,

... about 44 local programs have been operating in the state, serving roughly 4 percent of eligible children. But Dollywood Foundation executive director Nora Briggs said the goal is to reach all of the estimated 755,000 children under age 5 in Illinois.

You can see the full announcement here.