This article was reprinted from The Keystone
At the beginning of 2021, Kutztown Area School District decided to put books into the hands of local children before they even started kindergarten. To do this, the district signed up to be an affiliate for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library .
Started by the legendary country singer in 1995, Imagination Library mails free books to children from birth through age 5, regardless of income. Inspiring a love of reading in kids is the mission of the program and, as of December 2023, Imagination Library includes more than 2,700 local affiliates across the country and has gifted more than 226 million free books to children across the world.
Each month, the program mails age-appropriate books to all registered children, addressed to them, at no cost to the child’s family. Titles range from “Can You Guess? Animal Sounds with The Very Hungry Caterpillar” for children born in 2024, to “Rabbit’s Snow Dance In Our Garden” for children born in 2019.
In Pennsylvania, there are 54 local affiliates that work to register children in their respective areas. These affiliates include nonprofit organizations, regional libraries, and school districts.