Since the programme started, books have been sent to more than 240 million to kids in the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia.
Dolly Parton addresses attendees at an event celebrating the Missouri statewide expansion of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, Tuesday, August 27, 2024. / Photo: APInspired by her upbringing, the 78-year-old country music legend has made it her mission over the past three decades to improve literacy through her Imagination Library book giveaway programme.
"In the mountains, a lot of people never had a chance to go to school because they had to work on the farms," she said at the Folly Theater in Kansas City, Missouri."They had to do whatever it took to keep the rest of the family going." Missouri covers the full cost of the programme, which totalled $11 million in the latest fiscal year. Most of the other states chip in money through a cost-sharing model.
It encourages families to read together, and it allows children to have their own personal library before starting kindergarten, at no cost to their families, the first lady said. "That was kind of my way to honour my dad, because the Bible says to honour your father and mother," she said."And I don't think that just means, 'just obey'. I think it means to bring honour to their name and to them."Parton is an author herself whose titles include the 1996 children's book"Coat of Many Colors", which is part of the book giveaway program.
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