Every month, thousands of young children across Middle Tennessee receive something special in the mail: a book with their name on it. Through Imagination Library of Middle Tennessee, children from birth to age five can build a home library of age-appropriate, high-quality books delivered directly to their mailboxes at no cost to families.
Made possible through a partnership with the Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation, The Dollywood Foundation and United Way of Greater Nashville, the program helps ensure that young children have access to books during the most important years of early brain development.
How the Program Works
Families enroll their children in Imagination Library of Middle Tennessee, and once registered, each child receives one book every month until their fifth birthday. Books are selected to match each child’s age and stage of development, personalized with the child’s name and mailed directly to the family’s home.
Behind that simple monthly delivery is a strong partnership model.
The Dollywood Foundation covers program overhead by providing the custom-built Book Order System and coordinating book selection, procurement and fulfillment. The Foundation also purchases high-quality, customized books at scale, significantly reducing costs. Local Program Partners are responsible only for the at-cost book and mailing expenses for children registered in their coverage area.
Local Program Partners facilitate the cost of providing books so there is no cost to children and families. This approach, along with making the program available to all children and families in a covered area, helped Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library receive a Best Practice Award from the U.S. Library of Congress for addressing social barriers to literacy.
The average retail cost of Imagination Library titles is about $14.30 per book. Through volume purchasing, Imagination Library is able to acquire and mail customized titles for about $2.60 per child per month.
In Middle Tennessee, United Way raises funds, builds awareness and supports the program in Davidson, Williamson, Sumner, Stewart and Montgomery counties.
Why Early Access to Books Matters
Reading with children early in life helps prepare them for school and builds the foundation for lifelong learning. Ninety percent of physical brain development occurs in the first three years of life, when a baby forms more than one million new neural connections per second. Those early years are a critical window for learning words, language and communication.
By placing books directly in children’s homes, Imagination Library helps families create moments of growth, discovery and connection. Each book gives caregivers another opportunity to read, talk, point, ask questions and make reading part of everyday life.
The Impact in Middle Tennessee
Imagination Library of Middle Tennessee is helping more children experience the joy and benefits of reading at home. Last year alone, more than 50,000 children were served and more than 510,000 books were mailed through the program.
Over time, the program has placed hundreds of thousands of books into the hands of local children, showing how a simple idea—mailing a book to a child every month—can support families and strengthen communities for years to come.
Simple Ways to Support Early Literacy
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- A gift of $31 can provide a child with a full year of books.
- Share the value of early reading with community leaders, partners and families.
- Connect potential donors and local organizations with opportunities to support Imagination Library in their community.
- Invite friends, colleagues and neighbors to help expand access to books for local children.
- Encourage families to make reading, talking and storytelling part of everyday routines at home.
When communities invest in early literacy, they invest in a stronger future. Imagination Library of Middle Tennessee makes it easy for families to build reading routines from the very beginning—and easy for neighbors, donors and partners to help every child start school with more words, more stories and more possibilities. Learn more at unitedwaygreaternashville.org/imagination-library.