Dolly Parton gives 100 millionth free book to children

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, the initiative she set up in honour of her illiterate father, has handed out its 100 millionth free book.

The book, a copy of Parton’s children’s picture book Coat of Many Colors, was donated to the Library of Congress in Washington DC, with which Parton has set up a partnership to live-stream story readings.

Parton began the Imagination Library in 1996 in Sevier County, Tennessee, where she was raised. Children whose families sign up are posted free books, funded via charitable giving.

Parton, who grew up with only the Bible in her house, has said she was inspired by the example of her father, who worked hard but didn’t have the chance to learn to read or write. “I thought, well, I’m gonna do this: to get books in the hands of children, because if you can read, you can educate yourself,” she told CNBC in 2016. The initiative expanded across the US in 2000, then set up in the UK in 2007 and Australia in 2013.