Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to Launch in Shasta County

REDDING, Calif. — Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is set to launch in Shasta County early next month, bringing free books to young children in the area.

This announcement was made during a presentation at the Redding Rotary Club, where Parton said in a video, “Well guess what California, it’s time we officially launch my imagination library.”

The program, which has distributed nearly 300 million age-appropriate free books to children in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and Ireland, will be available to children from birth to 5 years old in Shasta County. The initiative is a partnership with First 5 Shasta and the Shasta Library Foundation.

Shauna Bambino, Executive Director of the Shasta Library Foundation, explained the program’s benefits.

“The Dolly Parton’s imagination library allows any child between birth and 5 years old in Shasta County to go ahead and register to have a free book delivered to them every single month. So if you start at birth then you can have upwards of 60 books in your personal library, your children’s personal library, and it doesn’t matter if you have three four or five children in that home, if they are five and under they get to participate in that program.”

Wendy Dickens, Executive Director of First 5 Shasta, highlighted the broader impact of literacy on the community.

“The importance of literacy within our community really does speak to our later-on economic vitality, because if you don’t have a literate workforce you’re gonna have some issues later on for your economy. And so we really wanna start helping the whole community realize that literacy is something we should all rally around, that we can’t just expect the schools to do it,” she said.

Parton concluded her announcement with a message to the community.

“Happy reading California, and remember that I will always love you.”

Further details on how to sign up for the program will be available soon.