MAINE, USA — During a virtual discussion with renowned singer-songwriter Dolly Parton at the National Governor’s Association summer meeting on Friday, Gov. Janet Mills announced that Maine is launching a statewide expansion of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in 2023.
The Imagination Library of Maine will mail high-quality, age-appropriate books to children from birth until age 5 every month, no matter their family’s income, according to a release from the governor's office.
The program is intended to improve children's lives by inspiring a love of reading, and it's free to enrolled children and families.
As part of the recent bipartisan budget, Mills proposed and the Legislature approved a $200,000 investment to implement the program, which will be administered by the Maine State Library. Together, The Dollywood Foundation and the Maine State Library plan to develop an implementation strategy this year with local libraries, community nonprofits, the Maine Department of Education, and school systems to establish and expand the program in the coming years, according to Friday's release.
By the end of 2023, the state and the Imagination Library hope to have sent an initial 106,000 books to more than 14,000 children across Maine.
Maine is the 13th state to commit to achieving statewide coverage of the program.
“We know the simple act of reading to a child stimulates brain development, reduces stress and anxiety, builds vocabulary, and develops the literacy skills they’ll need to succeed in school and beyond,” Mills said in Friday's release.
“Today, we are taking another step forward to help make that happen by delivering books free of charge to Maine kids. Maine is proud to join the family of states that participate in the Imagination Library," Mills continued. "On behalf of all Maine children who will be served by this program in the years to come, I thank the one-and-only Dolly Parton.”
Dolly Parton founded the Imagination Library in 1995 as a way to distribute books to the impoverished Tennessee county where she grew up. Tennessee quickly adopted the program statewide, and, since then, the nonprofit program has expanded into five countries. As of June 2022, the Imagination Library has gifted 184,615,046 books with over 2 million kids currently registered, the Mills administration said.
“The Maine State Library is excited to be able to administer this program that will eventually connect tens of thousands of families and Maine children with wonderful books sent right to their homes,” State Librarian James Ritter added. “Working with Maine’s libraries and other organizations, we will have the opportunity to foster and grow generations of young readers through the Imagination Library, and for every child that learns to read, we know we are helping to build a community of lifelong learners.”
In 2019, about 57 percent of fourth-grade students who are eligible for free or reduced lunch scored below proficiency reading levels, while 33 percent of students who are not eligible for free or reduced lunch scored below proficiency reading levels, according to Friday's release.
