CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Dolly Parton did it again.
Their hugely popular Imagination Library has had a significant impact on the reading scores of children in Hamilton County.
The Dolly Parton Imagination Library celebrates its 20th anniversary in Hamilton County and shows that reading can be fun.
The books in the Imagination Library are specially selected, age-appropriate and high-quality titles.
These books are delivered to registered children every month from birth to the age of five. Each book is personalized with the child’s name and is sent directly to the child’s home address.
Learning to read is a page in every child’s story, but for two-year-old Sage Deidtrick, it is her favorite. Her mother Laura Gibson says
One of her favorite things to do is, you know, when I go in, I pull the book out of the mailbox, open it, and flip through the pages.
The director of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library in Hamilton County, Lesa Witt, is committed to making books accessible to children.
And that’s an important issue, because according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the number of children who read almost daily fell nearly a decade ago to its lowest level since the 1980s.
In recent years, about two-thirds of third-graders were unable to read at their grade level, and that percentage dropped even further during pandemic-related school closures, according to the Tennessee Department of Education.
But now these numbers are rising again – thanks in part to Dolly’s Imagination Library.
According to Blake Freeman, chief academic officer for Hamilton County Schools, 40 percent of students were rated “proficient” on the reading test last year.
But books also compete heavily for students’ time these days. According to the National Institutes of Health, more than 90 percent of young children have a mobile device at home.
Find out more about Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library here.
