Country music queen Dolly Parton was in many people’s good books, especially librarians.<\/p>\n
Her Imagination Library has been gifting kids in Canada with free books since 2006, making its way to the Edmonton Public Library in 2022. Children enrolled in EPL’s Ready. Set. Read!, in partnership with Imagination Library, receive an age-appropriate book mailed out to them monthly from birth to age five.<\/p>\n
Elaine Jones, manager of youth services at EPL, said Ready. Set. Read! is complementary to its Welcome Baby program, which sees babies receive a package including a book during their two-month immunizations.<\/p>\n
“Kids love the program,” said Jones. “Dolly is such an icon. From a young age, children associate the program with her. They’re excited when books addressed to them arrive in their mailbox every month. They call it ‘Dolly’s books.'”<\/p>\n
Parton launched the Imagination Library in 1995 in tribute to her father, who was unable to read or write. The program has since expanded beyond the U.S. and has sent out more than 300 million books since its inception. EPL’s Ready. Set. Read! is in partnership with Imagination Library, but it is funded entirely by local donations.<\/p>\n
Jones said Parton’s recent death<\/a> has spurred newfound interest in EPL’s program, which gifted 56,976 books to kids in Edmonton in 2025. “It put a focus on her being a great champion of literacy and children.”<\/p>\n When the EPL partnership launched, it focused on select communities in Edmonton, given its limited spots.<\/p>\n “Dolly Parton really wanted the program not to be perceived as the poor box or its equivalent, but at the same time she recognized it would have the greatest impact for vulnerable populations,” said Jones. “There was so much interest in the program that, through donors, we were able to expand. After COVID, we realized there were pockets throughout the city that were underserved, and we made it open to everybody.”<\/p>\n The Ready. Set. Read! program is currently serving approximately 5,000 children in the city. Their first and last books mailed to them include special messages from Parton, making the kids feel special.<\/p>\n “She planned this as her legacy,” Jones said about Parton’s Imagination Library. The Canadian chapter is grieving her death and sorting through the details, but the program is expected to continue, Jones said.<\/p>\n Enrollment in Ready. Set. Read! is limited, but once a child turns five years old and “graduates” from the program, new children can be added. To register, visit epl.ca\/ready-set-read<\/a>. You can also donate to the local program online<\/a>.<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know \u2014 add EdmontonJournal.com<\/a> and EdmontonSun.com<\/a> to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.<\/a><\/p>\n You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal<\/a> | The Edmonton Sun.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Country music queen Dolly Parton was in many people’s good books, especially librarians. Her Imagination Library has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59303,58955,59911,52,59910,35735,7424,59912,38473,59301,59302,50947,58635],"class_list":["post-190127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-dolly","tag-dolly-parton","tag-dolly-partons-imagination-library","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-public-library","tag-edmonton-sun","tag-epl","tag-imagination-library","tag-jones","tag-parton","tag-partons-imagination-library","tag-the-edmonton-journal","tag-the-edmonton-sun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}