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Dolly Parton launched the Imagination Library philanthropic effort in 1995 to honor her father, whose Appalachian upbringing prevented him from learning to read and write. The program initially launched in Tennessee’s Sevier County, where Parton grew up, before expanding across the US in 2000. By 2025, it had distributed over 300 million books, equating to one book mailed every 78 seconds.

The scheme sends one free book a month to children from birth to age five and has expanded globally to include Canada (launched in 2006), the UK (launched in 2007), Australia (launched in 2013), and Ireland (launched in 2019). In inner-city Sydney, Australia, Paige Stewart’s twin girls, aged four, “had a speech delay and some learning difficulties” but noticed a change after receiving their second book.