Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

To all of our Black Hawk County Imagination Library participants and donors:

We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to serve our community over the last three and a half years and share the gift of reading with so many young Cedar Valley children. Since launching this program in June of 2022, our program has provided 101,088 books to children and their families in our county at a cost of $225,854.

Unfortunately, we have spent the entirety of our grant funds supporting Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (DPIL) program for all Black Hawk County residents, with no new county-wide funding opportunities on the horizon, so children registered in our program will be receiving their last book in January or February. If your child is registered, there is nothing you need to do to cancel your membership – that will be done automatically on your behalf.

Some cities in Black Hawk County will be continuing the program at their own expense, including Cedar Falls, and you will be contacted by your library director with further information when the set-up of their new account with Imagination Library is complete.  If you live in one of those cities continuing the program, your child’s registration will automatically be transferred to the new affiliate—you will not need to re-register your child.

Thank you to all of our participating families and local donors for your commitment to helping our young people gain the early literacy foundation they need to become lifelong readers.

Thank you also to the Friends of the Cedar Falls Public Library, whose generosity will enable Cedar Falls children to continue in the program for the remainder of our five-year cycle.

What is Dolly Parton's Imagination Library?

Since launching in 1995, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has become the preeminent early childhood book gifting program in the world. The flagship program of the The Dollywood Foundation has mailed well over 100 million free books in Australia, Canada, The Republic of Ireland, United Kingdom and the United States. Dolly Parton's Imagination Library mails more that 1.4 million high-quality age-appropriate books each month to registered children from birth to age five. Dolly envisioned creating a lifelong love of reading, inspiring them to dream. The impact of the program has been widely researched and results suggest positive increase in key early childhood literacy metrics. Penguin Random House is the exclusive publisher for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

For more information, please visit imaginationlibrary.com.

For answers to questions frequently asked by parents, visit Imagination Library FAQs.