Dolly Parton’s philanthropic Imagination Library had a proven effect in Australia, and around the world

Dolly Parton had first-hand experience of the effects of limited literacy. Her father could not read or write. He was, she once said, the smartest man I have ever known but I know in my heart his inability to read probably kept him from fulfilling all of his dreams. This sentiment fuelled her passion for encouraging childhood literacy. It drove her to establish the Imagination Library, with the goal of inspiring “a love of reading and learning from a young age”. Launched in 1995, the…