In 1996, Dolly Parton launched an exciting new effort to benefit the children of her home county in east Tennessee. Dolly wanted to foster a love of reading among her county’s preschool children and their families. She wanted children to be excited about books and to feel the magic that books can create. Moreover, she could insure that every child would have books, regardless of their family’s financial situation.

So she decided to give a brand new, age appropriate book each month to every child under 5 in Sevier County and send it directly to their home via post. With the arrival of every child’s first book, he or she could now experience the joy of finding their very own book in their letterbox. These moments continue each month until the child turns 5—and in their very last month in the program they receive a special "graduation" book.

Needless to say the experience has been a smashing success. So much so that many other communities clamored to provide the Imagination Library to their children. Dolly thought long and hard about it and decided her Foundation should develop a way for other communities to participate. The Foundation asked a blue ribbon panel of experts to select just the right books and secured Penguin Group USA to be the exclusive publisher for the Imagination Library. Moreover a database was built to keep track of the information.

Consequently, in March of 2000 she stood at the podium of The National Press Club in Washington, D.C. and revealed the plan for other communities to provide the Imagination Library to their children. And as only Dolly can say it, she wanted to “put her money where her mouth is – and with such a big mouth that’s a pretty large sum of money” and provide the books herself to the children of Branson, Missouri and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina – communities where her businesses now operate. If other leaders in their communities were willing to do the same, well something big might just happen.

You know what? It did!!

As a matter of fact, as word of the programme began to spread, Dolly was soon invited to bring her Imagination Library to the United Kingdom. And Roger Stone, the Leader of Rotherham Council in South Yorkshire, wanted his hometown to be the first to adopt Dolly's Imagination Library in the UK.

After much work and planning, The Dollywood Foundation of the United Kingdom was formed. Penguin Books UK was chosen as the exclusive publisher for the programme, and along with partners dsicmm Limited for fulfillment, Royal Mail for delivery, and the UK's very own blue-ribbon panel of experts to choose the books, the scheme was set on its way!

On December 4, 2007, Dolly Parton was introduced to the crowd gathered at the Savoy Hotel in London by a group of school children who sang Dolly’s song “I Believe in You.” Dolly had ventured to London to announce that her Imagination Library would now be available to communities throughout the United Kingdom.

Ed Balls, Roger Stone, Dolly Parton and John Healy

Here’s how it works:

A community must make the programme accessible to all preschool children in their area. The community pays for the books and mailing, promotes the program, registers the children, and enters the information into the database.

From there The Dollywood Foundation of the United Kingdom takes over and manages the system to deliver the books to the home. You can find out more of the operational details on other pages in this website – so what are you waiting for? Hundreds of communities are providing books to hundreds of thousands of children.  We'd love for you to be part of our Imagination Library family too!