Yesterday (August 25), a musical and cultural icon for many in Dolly Parton died at 80 years young. I will be the first to admit that the genre of her singing fame, may not be my favorite necessarily. Nevertheless, in recent years, Dolly has become cherished in our household for a completely different reason, one that has been appreciated by seemingly countless young families for three decades.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is the flagship program of The Dollywood Foundation, Dolly’s nonprofit organization founded in 1988 and based in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Since launching in 1996, the Imagination Library has become the preeminent, global early childhood book-gifting program. Inspired by her father’s inability to read or write, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is dedicated to inspiring a love of reading and learning in children from birth to age five, by gifting high-quality books, free of charge to families, through funding shared by Dolly and local Community Partners.
The Imagination Library is more than just a feel-good international program: the body of evidence on early brain development shows the importance of reading to young children. Reading is the key for lifelong learning and the single most important activity for building knowledge required for eventual success in school, work, and life in general. Brain science provides evidence that reading to children before kindergarten positively influences the developing brain when it is most sensitive to nurturing experiences.
While The Dollywood Foundation provides the infrastructure and all administrative costs, at the heart of the program are our local Community Partners who enroll children and cover the cost of the books and the postage in their geographic areas. The dedication and generosity of these local partners is the reason for our success.
For over 25 years, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has demonstrated the power and impact of gifting a book in the mail to children from birth to age 5, while helping families build home libraries that inspire a love of reading so all children will Dream More, Learn More, Care More, and Be More.
Last week, our youngest received a book called Forts (written by Katie Venit and illustrated by Kenard Pak), which perfectly ties into the actual physical, creative, and imagination-running-wild space that he and his siblings thoroughly enjoy. As with any book to reel in the reader, regardless of age, it connects with their own experience of make-shift forts, to be sure, but also seemingly transports them into a wondrous world beautifully illustrated on the paper pages in front of their eyes. It begins with, “The world is filled with forts. Tiny worlds within this world, safe as coat pockets,” a perfect image for children who insist on finding the safest spot to keep whatever random thing they find on the outside, and so maybe lends to further thinking as to why they enjoy their own forts so much.
But then, as with many written and colorful works of art shared by Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and local community partners, this one has a way of reeling in the adult reader, too:
And forts are for being alone.
When the world is too bright,
too loud, or too peopley,
find a fort and leave
every sight,
every noise,
everyone outside.Except for the someone
you will always let in.
Of course, those words may get fulfilled differently over a lifetime: a parent, best friend, spouse, sponsor, or others. Sometimes when mortality rears its not-so-pleasant reality, maybe others get let in that may not have been envisioned. Granted, hopefully, the church can provide that someone from time to time, but we also recognize that perhaps, sometimes, we may need some alone-ness from that, too. But we can also rest assured that, in the end, Christ is meant to be the ultimate “fort” of safety and solace and even a sensitivity to needing separation from other children of God in certain life overwhelming instances. Regardless, through it all, we can even be further assured of the Gospel: not of us letting Christ in, but of Christ letting us in to the tender embrace that not even death can wrench away. Thanks be to God, indeed!
In Christ,
Pastor Brad
For more information about Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, please visit:
imaginationlibrary.com
Venit, Katie and Kenard, Pak. 2025. Forts. Viking.