<\/p>\n
Dolly Parton<\/strong> has just reached a landmark milestone with her Imagination Library!<\/p>\n Since its launch in 1995, the program has now officially gifted more than\u00a0300 million books\u00a0to children around the world.<\/p>\n Dolly’s Imagination Library announced the news via their website<\/a> on Oct. 17.<\/p>\n “This November, at the peak of its celebratory 30th anniversary year and in perfect harmony with National Family Literacy Month, Dolly Parton\u2019s Imagination Library is marking a breathtaking milestone: over\u00a0300 million books gifted\u00a0to children since the program began in 1995!” a statement read.<\/p>\n “Just two years after crossing the 200 million mark, the Imagination Library has soared to new heights, now gifting an incredible 3.4 million books each month to children around the world and will deliver its 300 Millionth book this fall,” it continued.<\/p>\n RELATED: Dolly Parton Confesses Her Secret Fast-Food Obsession<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Parton founded the Imagination Library in her hometown of Sevier County, TN, after being inspired by her own father’s illiteracy.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore he passed away, my Daddy told me the\u00a0Imagination Library\u00a0was probably the most important thing I had ever done. I can\u2019t tell you how much that meant to me because I created the\u00a0Imagination Library\u00a0as a tribute to my Daddy,” Parton said in a YouTube video<\/a> posted in 2023. “He was the smartest man I have ever known but I know in my heart his inability to read probably kept him from fulfilling all of his dreams.”<\/p>\n Parton’s father, Robert Lee Parton Sr<\/strong>., worked in the mountains of\u00a0East Tennessee as a\u00a0sharecropper\u00a0and later owned a small\u00a0tobacco farm and acreage. Robert, who went by “Lee,” died in 2000.<\/p>\n RELATED:\u00a0Dolly Parton Issues Advice to Kelly Clarkson and Reba McEntire After Brandon Blackstock\u2019s Death<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Dolly’s Imagination Library sends free books to children across the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia and Ireland from birth to age five, hoping to inspire a love of reading that persists throughout childhood and into adulthood.<\/p>\n To date, Dolly’s Imagination Library has worked with more than 2,800 local program partners who bring the country icon’s dream to life across the world.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, I have not done this alone,” she said in the video. “The real heroes of our story are the thousands of local organizations who have embraced my dream and made it their own. They raise millions of dollars each year and wake up every day with a passion to make sure their kids have every opportunity to succeed.”<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfac<\/strong>\u00a0SIGN UP for Parade\u2019s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\ud83c\udfac\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n This story was originally reported by Parade<\/a> on Oct 26, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dolly Parton has just reached a landmark milestone with her Imagination Library! Since its launch in 1995, the program has now officially gifted more than\u00a0300 million books\u00a0to children around the world. Dolly’s Imagination Library announced the news via their website on Oct. 17. “This November, at the peak of its celebratory 30th anniversary year and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2117241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[401631,22641,401628,401630,401629],"class_list":["post-2117240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-children-around-the-world","tag-dolly-parton","tag-imagination-library","tag-national-family-literacy-month","tag-robert-lee-parton"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Dolly-Parton-Just-Hit-a-Heartwarming-Milestone-With-Her-Imagination.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2117240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2117242,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117240\/revisions\/2117242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2117241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2117240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2117240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2117240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}