The babies of Gilgandra are falling in love with reading, and it’s thanks in large part to country music star Dolly Parton, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
One year after Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library early reading program was rolled out in the Central Western town, borrowing rates at the local library are soaring and parents are forging new connections with their children and each other.
“It’s lovely, absolutely lovely,” Gilgandra librarian Liz McCutcheon said of the reading revolution unfolding in front of her.
“Seeing children so engaged with it, that lovely natural warmth of reading to a child and having a cuddle while you read.
“In three to four years’ time, I’m hoping there won’t be any child turning up at school in Gilgandra who hasn’t ever known how to open a book.”
Dolly Parton started the Imagination Library in the United States in 1995 to inspire a love of reading among children, especially those from more disadvantaged communities. Every child in the program receives a book a month in the mail for free, until they turn five.
In late 2021, the former Perrottet government decided to fund the library across the state’s 25 most vulnerable local government areas, including Gilgandra, with the plan to target 15,000 children over five years at a cost of $8 million. The program is run in Australia by charity United Way.
McCutcheon said she had signed up 65 Gilgandra babies to the program over the past year and had also started running a monthly Rhyme Time session at the library that targets the same families.
In that time, children’s book loans have jumped. For the first three months of this year, picture book loans were up 45.8 per cent and infant board books up 22.1 per cent compared with the same three months last year.
FULL STORY
How Dolly Parton has sparked a reading revolution in central western NSW (Sydney Morning Herald)
PHOTO
Imagination Library (United Way)
