{"id":17754,"date":"2025-07-24T05:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T05:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/17754\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T05:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T05:14:08","slug":"madison-countys-imagination-library-grows-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/17754\/","title":{"rendered":"Madison County’s Imagination Library Grows Fast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local Imagination Library enrollment jumps from 500 to 8,500 children in two years<\/p>\n

MADISON, Ala. \u2014 Enrollment in Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has surged from just over 500 children to more than 8,500 in Madison County over the past two years, making the local program one of the top performers nationwide.<\/p>\n

The program, which mails one free book monthly to children from birth to age 5, has transformed storytime at facilities like Slaughter Road Child Development Center, where young children recently gathered for reading activities.<\/p>\n

“From 0 to 2 to their second grade, they read to learn to read. And then from third grade on, they read to learn,” said Daniel Kasambira, CEO of United Way of Madison County<\/a>, which administers the local program. “One of the things we understand is if you can get them early and put a book in their hand at no cost to them, because of how generous donors and supporters, we can make those things happen.”<\/p>\n

The dramatic enrollment increase from July 2023 to present has propelled Madison County’s Imagination Library to ninth place nationally and second in Alabama, according to United Way officials.<\/p>\n

The program, founded by country music star Dolly Parton, aims to improve childhood literacy by ensuring young children have access to age-appropriate books during critical developmental years.<\/p>\n

Kasambira emphasized the program’s long-term educational impact, noting that early reading skills established before age 5 often determine academic success in later grades.<\/p>\n

The free books are funded through donations and community support, removing financial barriers that might otherwise prevent families from building home libraries for their children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local Imagination Library enrollment jumps from 500 to 8,500 children in two years MADISON, Ala. \u2014 Enrollment in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[64,63,457,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-17754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-books","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}