Dolly Parton and …books?

Soon after we started trying to have kids, JD and I were babysitting for some friends’ children when we noted to each other how many books the kids had. How wonderful it was that they were surrounded by mounds and mounds of books! After our friends arrived home after we spent an evening reading and reading and reading to their kids, our friends talked about how the books were free, all by merely signing up through a program called Books from Birth.

Basically, in a partnership with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library which started in 1996, the state of Tennessee sends any child who lives in Tennessee (and signs up through the site) a free book every month from birth until the child is five years old. Apparently, this program is set up nationwide (possible abroad as well), and counties can sign up to support the program if they can. (I’m not sure how to find out which counties are applicable, but I think you have to sign up before the site tells you if you’re eligible.)

Maggie’s first book arrived over the weekend, and in tight plastic wrap arrived “The Little Engine That Could” by Watty Piper. JD and I were both thrilled… it had begun! Maggie was getting her very first of many books. And what a classic with which to start!  I can’t wait to see what’s next.