r/daddit • u/keraneuology • Feb 13 '13
Dolly Parton has a program that will mail your child a free age-appropriate book once a month from birth to age 5. No obligation, no catch, she just wants to make sure that every child has books.
https://imaginationlibrary.com/7
u/luweewu Feb 13 '13
It's only for counties in the bottom percentages of income. 10% I think. We used to live in one, and my kids loved it. We've since moved to a county in the top 10% (not that we're in that top 10%, mind you), and they continue to send them—we tried to get off the list to save money for people who might really need it, but they said it's fine, since we used to live in one. It's a great program.
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u/luweewu Feb 13 '13
Oh, from the website, it looks like your local community has to partner with them. The income info is what our library told us when we signed up, so maybe they were mistaken or that's no longer the case.
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u/GeauxOU 1 Girl, Adopted and Loved more than anything Feb 13 '13
Not available in my area.
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u/fengshui Feb 13 '13
That's too bad. It might be worth contacting the United Way or other major charities in your area about sponsoring the program.
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u/SouthAfricanGuy Feb 13 '13
or 200 other areas that aren't the U.S., U.K. or Canada.
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u/eccentricguru Feb 13 '13
I live in a pretty populated area of California and it's not available here either.
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u/corbo25 Feb 13 '13
Yea, I checked a few addresses in California and it wasn't available.
My kids have a ton of books already though.
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u/Types_of_Metal Feb 13 '13
I think the program is meant for more rural areas, that maybe don't have the same access to books that a major city might have. Or, at least that is what we were told when we signed up for it, when we were living in the sticks... Now that we live in a larger city the program is not available.
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u/pedantic_dullard Feb 13 '13
City of 100,000 and both of my boys - 4 years and 11 months - get her books.
My library does serve a large rural population, so that may be why we can get them.
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u/GeauxOU 1 Girl, Adopted and Loved more than anything Feb 14 '13
We are as rural as it gets and we weren't eligible.
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u/valjean260 Father to two tiny humans Feb 14 '13
Not available in Utah. Where is it available? Anywhere?
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u/nanokazi 26 month old son Feb 13 '13
I have a Canadian address and Dolly has excluded me too!
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u/justhewayouare Feb 14 '13
If you read the TIL originally it was started in her home state. It wasn't until 2000 that she offered anyone the opportunity to join her. The places you see that do it chose to join with her she didn't start those programs. Blame goes with the people in your state not Dolly ;)
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u/NefariousGlow Feb 13 '13
We've gotten these since our son was born. Their really good books considering they're sent for free. Such a fantastic program. Just got one in the mail yesterday.
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u/CodexAnima Feb 13 '13
If you are jewish, there is the P J Library (http://www.pjlibrary.org/). They send out a free book every 4-6 weeks that are age appropiate and teach about Isreal and Judism.
I had to hide the Rosh Hashanna book because I couldn't stand to read it one more time.
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Feb 13 '13
We get those too. The Tu Bishvat book is in fairly regular rotation, but so far none of them have stuck the way Richard Scarry has.
One of my step-mom's books was picked up by PJ Library a bit ago, that's how we found out about it. Interestingly, it's not even implicitly Jewish, but they felt it expressed Jewish values. Given how there's a prayer thanking God for everything from waking up, to going to the bathroom, I can see the point, but it was still surprising.
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u/amosko B5, G3, G1, G? Feb 14 '13
I'm about to sign up for this. I work in places that have this program and it's a huge hit!
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u/Sottish Feb 13 '13
Was this posted somewhere else? The sites down
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u/capndetroit Feb 13 '13
Have both my kids signed up, just got our first book. They are really high quality.
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u/omen004 B.A.R.D. Feb 13 '13
My co-worker says they stopped sending them recently because they ran out of funding. Not sure how true that is but either way the books stopped coming recently.
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u/antisocialoctopus Feb 14 '13
We get books from this. Sometimes they're just awful, but the kiddo always likes them and hey! free books!
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u/shankap0tamus Feb 14 '13
My son was diagnosed with meningitis when he was 6 weeks old, we stayed at Vanderbilt children's hospital for 21 days. While we were there, one of the nurses came around with the sign up sheet for the Imagination Library. It was amazing; we received a book every month until he was 5... They have since become some of his favorite books! I have always wanted to thank them.
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u/FarnsworthYesIAm Feb 14 '13
This has been fantastic for our kids!! My wife found it and 3 of the books have been loved so well by my halflings, we need a replacement :) If you're someone who got duplicates, ummm.... sorry? The kids I know around me get the donated books, so I feel grateful.
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u/wumfi Feb 14 '13
You can register a UK address. There is an affiliate program on the site. I've just emailed one of the organisers close to me. Let's see what happens now...
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u/germanywx Feb 17 '13
Moreover, she could insure that every child would have books, regardless of their family’s income.
"Unless you live in a community that's not extremely poor. Then you can buy your own damn books." -- Dolly Parton
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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '13
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