It is the age old question of the book collecting field – where is the new collector? It is at times a rhetorical question, more a statement of fear for the field, that books will be overwhelmed by newer forms of technology, from movies to TV to the internet. Who needs this almost 600-year-old technology? And yet it goes on, as generation after generation takes up reading, with some becoming collectors. How does this happen?
Reading is different from viewing. Viewing presents an entire story prepackaged. It is all created for you. Reading, on the other hand, requires you to interpret the words, create the images yourself. It requires imagination. However, with many more technologically exciting choices available, how do you get books in children's hands so they can imagine for themselves? Here is one person who is doing it, and perhaps not an obvious choice. It is Dolly Parton, known as one of the greatest country music singers and performers, along with being an actress, children's books author, and skilled businesswoman (as attested to by her Nashville theme park “Dollywood”). Behind all the fame is a woman dedicated to getting books into the hands of children, in America and now Canada, the U.K. Ireland and Australia. One in seven children in the U.S. age 0-5 receives free books from her Imagination Library, delivered free from Dolly and her numerous supporters.
Dolly Parton comes from rural Sevier County, Tennessee. She was one of twelve children who grew up in a tiny home. Her family was poor, but she probably didn't know it, certainly didn't let it set her back. Based on her songwriting and singing talent, she became a star, first just in country music, but later in other forms of popular music, film, etc. She made a lot of money, but rather than just accumulating it all for herself, she branched into numerous charitable causes, her Imagination Library being at the top.
It began in Sevier County in 1995. By 2000, it spread to other communities. They had mailed out 1 million books. That was then. The Imagination Library has now mailed out 280 million books through its local organizations and it just keeps growing. Dolly's inspiration was her father, whom she said was a very smart man, but never learned to read. “Inspiring kids to love to read became my mission,” she explains on the Imagination Library's website. That kids would call her “The Book Lady” made her father prouder than that she had become a big star.
Book collectors grow from book readers. Book readers grow from children who have books. Few if any people have put more books in the hands of children than Dolly Parton, even if most people know her just as a singer and actor. It is people like Dolly Parton who are creating the next generation of collectors. She understands the importance of books for children to succeed later in life.
