Dolly’s Imagination Library
Country music legend Dolly Parton has brought her Imagination Library to Wandsworth, offering every child under five a free book each month. The scheme, launched in partnership with the council, aims to foster a love of reading from an early age. Families can register to receive carefully chosen, age-appropriate books delivered to their door. Parton’s global initiative has gifted over 200 million books worldwide, and Wandsworth’s youngest readers are now set to benefit.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in the UK is a free book-gifting programme that aims to inspire a love of reading from an early age. Founded by Dolly Parton in 1995 in her home state of Tennessee, the initiative expanded internationally and has been running in the UK since 2007. The scheme provides a carefully chosen, age-appropriate book each month to children from birth until their fifth birthday, meaning a child can build a personal library of up to 60 books by the time they start school.
The books are posted directly to the child’s home, addressed in their name, helping to make reading feel special and personal. Titles are selected by a panel of experts to support language development, imagination, and school readiness. Local communities, charities, and partners fund the programme, while The Dollywood Foundation coordinates delivery and book selection.
In the UK, the Imagination Library operates in many local areas, particularly targeting families who may not otherwise have easy access to books. Independent studies have shown that the programme boosts early literacy, strengthens parent-child bonding through shared reading, and helps narrow the gap in educational outcomes for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
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