Bellevue families with children under five can sign up to receive a free book every month through Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, after the program restored service to King County.
The nonprofit Page Ahead Children's Literacy Program is partnering with Imagination Library of Washington to mail age-appropriate books to enrolled children from birth until their fifth birthday. Enrollment is free at imaginationlibrarywashington.org. The first book arrives eight to 10 weeks after signing up, and families can choose a fully bilingual English/Spanish book option.
Page Ahead, a Seattle-based literacy organization founded in 1990, announced the partnership on Sept. 10. The organization is the local program partner for the Imagination Library in both King and Spokane counties.
"Every child deserves the chance to build a home library of their own," Susan Dibble, Page Ahead's executive director, said in the Sept. 10 announcement. "We're proud to join Imagination Library of Washington's network of partners and help make sure no family is left without access to books simply because of where they live."
The King County Council marked the program's return on Friday, Sept. 25, by proclaiming the date "Dolly Parton 9 to 5 Day." Councilmembers Teresa Mosqueda and Rod Dembowski co-sponsored the proclamation, which came one month after Parton's death on Aug. 25.
To celebrate, Mosqueda partnered with the King County Library System (KCLS), Page Ahead, the City of Tukwila and Public Health Seattle–King County for a children's story time and vaccine promotion event at the Tukwila Library branch. Tukwila Mayor Thomas McLeod, KCLS Executive Director Heidi Daniel and Page Ahead's Dibble attended, according to the Bellevue Reporter. Page Ahead staff displayed books from the program and offered enrollment forms at the event.
Parton founded the Imagination Library in 1995 in her home county in Tennessee as a tribute to her father, who was unable to read. The program expanded to Washington in 2022 and has distributed nearly 4.5 million books to children statewide, with more than 100,000 currently enrolled, KOMO News reported.
Families in King County can enroll at imaginationlibrarywashington.org. For KCLS story time events, visit kcls.org/littlekids.
