Over the past 14 years, Ann Johnston and her team of volunteers at Read to Me Stockton have provided thousands of books to children across the city of Stockton.
“It’s so important for children to have to be read to, to develop the language, the speech, the talking, all of the concepts that are critical so that when they get to kindergarten, they’re ready to learn to read,” Johnston explained. “Children love to be read to and so our challenge, obviously, is to get the books into the hands of the children and to encourage the parents to read those books to those little babes.”
The nonprofit wouldn’t have been able to do this without grants, donations, and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
“Read to Me Stockton works with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to bring free, age-appropriate books to all the children now in San Joaquin County, from birth to age five,” Johnston continued. “Our goal is to improve literacy scores in this county, which are challenging because we know that there’s low literacy rates.”
If parents sign up their children for this program right when they are born, they’ll have a library of at least 59 books by the time they turn five years old. This is all to make sure they’re the best prepared to begin kindergarten.
“In each book, there’s always suggestions for the parents and the questions and the kind of conversation they should have with their child, and in the back is a little message from Dolly about how important it is to read to your child,” Johnston explained. “It’s all about literacy.”
In the 2023-24 school year, over 35% of all third-grade students in San Joaquin County were below standard in reading performance.
By now expanding outside of Stockton to the entire county, they hope to improve the region’s standard in reading statistics and see success skyrocket.
“Can you just imagine the level of literacy rising because children who may have never had a book in their home, or have very few books, or are only looking at iPads and things electronically, have an actual book in their hands that they can read and turn the pages and feel that magic that comes with reading?” Johnston said.
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