News – 2020 February Imagination Library Press Release

WATERTOWN – Beginning next month, children ages 5 and under living in the city will begin receiving free books, thanks to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and the North Country Library System’s new affiliation with the global program.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free books to children’s homes up until they reach age 5, or school age, in participating communities within the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Republic of Ireland.

Inspired by her father’s inability to read and write, she started her Imagination Library in 1995 for the children within her home county. Today, her program mails more than 1 million free, high quality books each month to children around the world until they begin school, no matter their family’s income.

The Library System became a local affiliate after receiving a grant from the Northern New York Community Foundation to cover the $25 cost per child per year, with absolutely no cost to families receiving the books.

According to Angela Newman, youth services consultant at the Library System, the system applied jointly with the North Country Prenatal/Perinatal Council for the grant, specifically so it could launch a pilot of the program after director Susan Mitchell, who was previously working for the Onondaga Library System, saw how successful the Imagination Library program was in that county.

“By having books in the home and encouraging adults to read to their kids, we’re hoping that when they enter kindergarten, they will be ready to read,” she said. “Essentially when children enter school ready for kindergarten it’s a good indicator they’ll be reading at grade level by the third grade, and that’s when you make the shift from learning to read to reading to learn, so I’m glad we’re finally able to get the program started here.”

Currently, only children living in Watertown are eligible for the program, with 56 enrolled so far, but the program hopes to expand into the county if more funding becomes available. For this first year there will be a cap at 100 children, but next year the number will be raised pending the extra funding According to the Imagination Library’s website, as of Thursday there were a total of 1,547,573 kids registered worldwide for the program and a total of 132,397,655 books mailed so far.

To enroll a child, parents and guardians can submit registration forms to the North Country Library System. Forms can be picked up at the Flower Memorial Library or the North Country Prenatal/Perinatal Council, as well as downloaded directly from the program’s website.

To register your child through the website, visit https://imaginationlibrary.com/ and click the button that says, “Can I register my child?” to follow the steps to obtain the form.