Sara Pic was born and raised in Uptown New Orleans (McMain ‘96!) and is a mom to a (newly—gulp) adult son and twin kindergarteners. She lives in River Ridge with her kids, her spouse, and her dog, Goobie.
I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU:
DOLLY PARTON’S IMAGINATION LIBRARY
This year, I experienced one of the most moving weepy graduations of my life. It was not my own graduation. It was not even the graduation of my son from high school (just recently dropped off at LSU—insert obligatory “Geaux Tigers!”). No, it was in fact the graduation of my five-year-old twins from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
Yes, living legend and national treasure Dolly Parton is also the patron saint of early childhood literacy. Maybe a little less sexy than her funding of the COVID-19 vaccine, but just as critical to lifelong success. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, reading proficiency by third grade is one of the most significant predictors of whether a student will graduate high school and succeed in a career. However, even before the pandemic, approximately two-thirds of children in the U.S. (and 80% of those living in poverty) had not developed the skills to read proficiently by third grade. The pandemic only exacerbated this trend, when millions of young children were no longer physically present in schools with teachers and instead “learning virtually,” with more and more children falling further and further behind.
Reading to young children early and often is one of the easiest things we as parents can do to help instill a lifelong love of reading, and to help them gain strength in their own reading skills. I started reading aloud to my twins when they were born premature and still in the NICU, where they received care for 26 days. The NICU at Touro provided us free books and encouraged us to read to the twins every time we visited. I still cherish those books to this day. Once they came home, I was on the hunt for ways to get free or discounted kids books, because book buying is an expensive addiction. I half-joke that I spent all my COVID stimulus checks on picture books because we couldn’t go to the library in person. And though I do love a public library (shout-out to all the hardworking librarians!), there is something very special about owning your own books, about building and curating your own personal library, about the history that each of your own books holds, that you have perhaps read and reread through car rides, beach trips, and bored rainy weekends. After Hurricane Katrina, the thing I hunted for the most in the debris of my childhood home was all of my books (my complete set of The Chronicles of Narnia survived!). Though I hope my own children never have to go through that particular heartache, I would be ecstatic if they also loved their own personal libraries that much.
Parton founded her Imagination Library in 1995, in honor of her father Robert Lee Parton, who never learned to read or write. “Before he passed away, my Daddy told me the Imagination Library was probably the most important thing I had ever done. I can’t tell you how much that meant to me because I created the Imagination Library as a tribute to my Daddy. He was the smartest man I have ever known but I know in my heart his inability to read probably kept him from fulfilling all of his dreams,” Parton wrote in her letter welcoming us to the Imagination Library that we received with our first book.
The Imagination Library started out giving one free book a month to the children of Parton’s home county in Tennessee, and has since grown worldwide. The Imagination Library has now given almost 300 million free books to children all over the world. And the Imagination Library just keeps growing—there was a 24% increase in books donated in 2024 over 2023.
I enrolled my twins in Dolly’s Imagination Library the moment it became available in my parish. The Imagination Library is funded partially by Parton and partially by local volunteer agencies or local governments—fittingly, in Orleans Parish, the Imagination Library is backed by the Krewe of Dolly. My twins soon received books monthly after that, until they “graduated” when they turned five earlier this year. The books ranged in topics, including alphabet yoga (ABC and You and Me), a nonfiction “first guide to outside” (How to Say Hello to a Worm), and Full Moon Pups (my kids’ fav), about wolf pups and the phases of the moon. The books featured diverse voices and characters as well, such as an Indigenous story, Rabbit’s Snow Dance. We even received a beautiful picture book rendition of Parton’s own song, “Coat of Many Colors.” The books we received also included activities and questions to help you guide your child through multiple re-readings.
I really was not prepared for how hard the final book we received would hit me. It was a special book, sent in the month of their 5th birthday—about growing up and going to kindergarten. Nancy Carlson’s Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come! is a classic parental tearjerker on its own, but paired with Dolly’s final letter to my twins, it was hard not to melt into a puddle. Dolly wrote (and I, of course, read it to myself in her distinct twang), “My, how time flies. It seems only yesterday when your family and friends read you your first story… This may be your last book from my Imagination Library but you have to promise to me you will keep on reading.” Signing off, with a flourish, “You are terrific, and remember… I Will Always Love You, Dolly.”
Will reading to our kids help reverse the alarming trend of illiteracy in the country? Perhaps not. And perhaps the only families signing up are ones, like mine, who would have likely still been reading to their kids daily anyhow. But we are at a moment when we can only hope that small actions will eventually equal something greater. We have to act aspirationally. I tell everyone I know about the Imagination Library in the hopes there will be even more support and even more books getting into the grubby, chubby hands of babies and toddlers. If the Imagination Library isn’t available in your area yet, you can register to be notified—and you can contact potential local partners, like the United Way and your local and state government officials, and urge them to participate. Alabama recently announced statewide coverage for the program, with a 50% funding match from the government. The Louisiana state budget currently provides 50% matching funds for local parish Imagination Library programs—but those funds may not persist without effort from us.1The print version of this column incorrectly stated that Louisiana does not match funds Today’s schoolchildren will be tomorrow’s pilots, nurses, engineers—and that all starts with the basic human right to read.
Learn more about Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and register your kids at imaginationlibrary.com.
illustrations by Victoria Allen
