Dolly Parton, Books, and the Gift of Imagination

We’ve all heard the news of the recent passing of Dolly Parton, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. She died on August 25, 2026, at the age of 80.

I find it strange that I feel sad about the death of a celebrity I never knew personally. Perhaps because we “see” celebrities so much in the media, they become familiar to us. We hear their voices, watch their interviews, listen to their songs, and learn pieces of their stories. It can almost feel as though we know them.

When a celebrity dies, I often find myself researching their life. My curiosity is stirred, and I’m amazed by what I discover.

That’s what happened with Dolly Parton.

Most people know Dolly as a singer and songwriter. Many know about her business success and Dollywood. But as I learned more about her life, I was especially interested in something that has little to do with her music.

Dolly Parton has given hundreds of millions of books to children.

Why?

The answer begins with her childhood.

A Child of Faith and Poverty

Dolly grew up poor in Locust Ridge in the mountains of East Tennessee. She was one of twelve children raised in a small one-room home in the Great Smoky Mountains. Her family had little money and few material possessions. There was no electricity or running water.

But poverty didn’t mean that Dolly’s family lacked something important.

• They had faith.
• They had family.
• And they had music.

Dolly’s father worked hard to provide for his family. He would get up early to work on the farm and then go to another job to earn money. He did whatever he could to put food on the table.

Dolly’s childhood wasn’t easy, but it helped shape the woman she would become.

Her family was deeply connected to the church. Her grandfather was a preacher in a local mountain church, and Dolly began singing hymns and playing guitar when she was a child.

Faith became part of the foundation of her life.

Dolly has spoken openly about her belief in God throughout her life. Her music includes numerous gospel songs, and her faith has continued to influence her work.

She believed that with God all things were possible. The belief shapped her legacy.

But there was another lesson from her childhood that would eventually inspire one of her greatest contributions to children.

The Father Who Couldn’t Read

Dolly has described her father as one of the smartest men she ever knew.

He had a brilliant mind for numbers and a natural talent for business. He knew how to bargain and negotiate and could make a good deal. But there was something he couldn’t do. He couldn’t read or write. Her father had to leave school at a young age to work and help support his family. Growing up in rural Appalachia, educational opportunities were limited. His inability to read didn’t mean he lacked intelligence. Quite the opposite.

He was a smart, hardworking man who simply hadn’t been given the opportunity to learn something many of us take for granted. Dolly saw how that limitation affected him.

Years later, that memory would become the seed of an extraordinary idea.

Motivated by Faith—and by Her Father

Dolly’s faith and upbringing shaped the way she viewed children and opportunity.

She had experienced poverty. She knew what it meant to grow up without many resources. And she knew what it was like to watch someone she loved have his opportunities limited because he couldn’t read.

She could have simply remembered her childhood. Instead, she did something with it.

In 1995, Dolly Parton founded Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in her home county of Sevier County, Tennessee. She wanted to give children an opportunity her father had never had: the chance to grow up with books and develop a love of reading.

That small beginning became something enormous.

The Book Lady

The Imagination Library mails a new, age-appropriate book every month to registered children from birth through age five. There is no charge to participating families. Funding is shared between Dolly Parton’s organization and local community partners.

The program now operates in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland.

And the numbers are staggering.

By the end of 2025, the Imagination Library had gifted 304,539,509 books since its founding. More than 40 million books were gifted during 2025 alone.

Think about that.

More than 300 million books.

One little girl growing up in the mountains of Tennessee remembered that her father couldn’t read, and decades later, motivated by faith, millions of children around the world are receiving books because of it.

That’s quite a legacy.

Why Give Children Books?

Why books?

Because books do more than teach children how to read.

Books introduce children to courage, sacrifice, kindness, forgiveness, perseverance, friendship, consequences, and countless other values.

• A child meets a character who faces a difficult decision and gets to watch what happens.
• A character makes a selfish choice and suffers the consequences.
• Another character sacrifices for someone else.
• Another forgives.
• Another refuses to give up.

Through stories, children can encounter difficult questions in a safe environment.

They can learn from someone else’s mistakes without having to make those mistakes themselves.

That’s one reason I believe so strongly in reading with children.

Dolly’s Gift Goes Beyond Literacy

A free book says something to a child.

• You matter.
• Your imagination matters.
• Your future matters.

The Imagination Library certainly encourages literacy, but its purpose goes beyond simply helping children learn to read. Its stated mission is to inspire a love of reading by putting quality books into children’s hands.

And there’s an important difference between giving a child a book and reading a book with a child.

When we read aloud together, we are not simply helping children develop vocabulary and reading skills. We are sharing an experience.

We can ask questions.

• “What do you think she should do?”
• “Why did he make that choice?”
• “What would you have done?”
• “Was that fair?”
• “What does the Bible say about that?”

The book becomes a doorway into conversation.

I’ve written before about the importance of reading aloud with our kids. Reading together builds connection as well as literacy.

It’s similar to why I play with my kids.

When I get down on the floor and play a game with my daughters, I’m entering their world. I’m telling them without saying a word, What matters to you matters to me.

Games give us opportunities to learn, too. There are rules to follow, turns to take, victories to celebrate, and disappointments to handle. We learn how to win graciously and lose graciously.

In other words, ordinary family activities can become opportunities to teach character.

What Can Parents Learn From Dolly?

Most of us will never have millions of dollars to give away.

We don’t have to.

Dolly Parton’s example reminds us that we can start with what we have. Try these:

• Read to your children.
• Give them good books.
• Visit the library.
• Talk about the stories you read.
• Ask questions.
• Listen to their answers.
• Build a family culture around books and stories.

We don’t have to wait until we have a foundation, a corporation, or a million dollars to invest in children.

We can start with one child and one book.

What Stories Are We Putting Into Our Children’s Hearts?

Dolly’s legacy also raises another question.

What books are we putting into our children’s hands?

If books teach lessons—and I believe they do—we need to pay attention to those lessons.

Not every book teaches the values we want our children to absorb. Some stories may contain ideas that contradict our family’s values or what Scripture teaches.

That doesn’t mean every book has to be perfect.

It does mean we should be intentional.

Ask quesitons like:

• What is this story teaching?
• What choices do the characters make?
• What happens because of those choices?
• What does the story celebrate?
• Do those values agree with our family’s values?
• Do they agree with Scripture?

I’ve written more about this in Choosing Books That Teach Life Lessons.

As an Author…

I know something about the power of putting a story into a child’s hands.

That’s one reason I wrote Redeeming Rhubarb.

I wanted children to enjoy a story about a mouse and a rat while wrestling with bigger questions about prejudice, forgiveness, friendship, courage, and doing what is right.

I don’t expect a book to replace a parent.

I want the book to help parents have conversations with their children.

That’s what I find so inspiring about Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

Dolly understood something that I believe every parent should understand:

Books can open doors.

• They open doors to imagination.
• They open doors to knowledge.
• They open doors to empathy.
• They open doors to difficult questions.
• And sometimes, they open doors to faith and character.

Dolly gave children books because she remembered what her father had been denied.

She took something painful from her childhood and turned it into something beautiful for millions of children.

That’s a legacy worth remembering.

A Legacy We Can Continue

Dolly Parton gave away more than 300 million books.

Most of us won’t come close to that number.

But perhaps we don’t need to.

• We can give one book to one child.
• We can sit beside that child and read it.
• We can ask a question.
• We can listen.
• We can talk about the choices the characters made.
• We can connect those choices to the values we want our children to develop.
• And then we can pick up another book.

Perhaps that’s how a legacy begins. Not with millions of dollars. Not with fame. But with one child, one book, and one conversation.

Dolly Parton gave children the gift of imagination. We can help them use that imagination to learn, grow, and become the people God created them to be.