27/08/2026
I was really sad to hear about Dolly Parton this week. I’ve always known and loved so many of her songs but I watched a documentary about her a year or so ago and remember just thinking what an amazing person she was.
I wanted to tell Woody a bit about her and why I thought she was so special, but I didn’t think the documentary I’d watched was particularly appropriate for an eight-year-old. So I found The Library That Dolly Built, which is all about her Imagination Library, and we rented it on Amazon and watched it together last night.
I knew a little bit about the Imagination Library already, but I hadn’t really appreciated the scale of it or quite how incredible it is.
Such a simple idea – every child receiving their own high-quality book through the post every month, from birth until they start school – but the impact of that is just huge. Getting books into homes, encouraging parents to read with their children, developing language and a love of stories from such a young age. And then seeing the sheer scale of the operation and how many children have benefited from it was just amazing.
Woody enjoyed it, although quite a few of the facts and figures definitely went over his head! So I’ve also ordered him the Little People, BIG DREAMS book about Dolly, which I think might help bring her story to life for him a little more.
I came away from it thinking what an incredible way to use the position you find yourself in. She had this idea and then kept going with it, and it has ended up putting more than 300 million books into children’s homes.
As someone who loves children’s books and knows how important reading together at home can be, I think that’s an extraordinary legacy to leave behind. ❤️