WHEN STOCKTON PARENTS read a bedtime story to their young children, many will have Dolly Parton to thank.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, the legendary performer’s children’s book charity, powers San Joaquin County’s successful children’s reading program, Read to Me, Stockton.

The program offered a tribute to Parton on social media after the entertainment icon’s death was announced Tuesday. Parton was 80.

Thanks to the nonprofit’s partnership with Imagination Library, some 15,700 books are being sent to children’s homes from the Imagination Library, said Ann Johnston, Read to Me, Stockton’s board president. “That’s a huge accomplishment,” she told Stocktonia.

Stockton was one of the first in the state to adopt the program. Johnston said she started in 2011 when she was Stockton’s mayor in conjunction with the Rotary Club. She and three others met backstage with Parton at one of her concerts in Concord, where she talked with them about the importance of getting kids started early with reading.

“It was a very special moment,” Johnston said. Parton was “so generous and complimentary about what we were doing. She felt (reading) was key to them getting ahead in life.”

Read to Me, Stockton, started in 2011 from a single ZIP code in South Stockton. Within seven years, it had expanded to the entire city. The only requirement was that children live in a Stockton ZIP code and be under the age of 5.

Reading the future

Johnston was mayor from 2008 to 2012. She said she realized the key to the city’s economic growth was to foster a better-educated workforce. Research, she said, showed that the best way to stimulate a lifelong love of reading is to involve children with books as young as possible. Read to Me, Stockton’s goals aligned with those of Imagination Library, which led to the affiliation.

“Dolly always felt every child, no matter what their age or ethnicity, should have books in their home,” Johnston said.

Under the program, children receive a free book every month. It’s sent directly to a child’s home by Imagination Library.

The first book a child receives is “The Little Engine that Could,” one of the most popular children’s books of all time.

“Dolly always felt every child, no matter what their age or ethnicity, should have books in their home.”
Ann Johnston, board president of Read to Me, Stockton

“That was her favorite book,” Johnston said. The story struck a chord with Parton as a tale about how resilience and fortitude lead to success in life.

Besides signing up youngsters to receive books, Read to Me, Stockton, also raises the funds to support the program in the county. The program pays only $1.30 a book, its price halved since the state of California embraced the program statewide.

With Parton’s Imagination Library as a partner, Read to Me, Stockton remains one of the largest and most successful programs of its kind in the state, Johnston said.

“Nobody argues about the value of having books in the hands of children,” she said.

This story originally appeared in Stocktonia.