Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz announced that Erie County has awarded Read to Succeed Buffalo (RTSB) $105,000 over three years to restart Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a book gifting program that mails free, high-quality books to children from birth to age five. The announcement was made at Puddle Jumpers Child Care in Buffalo.

Since launching in 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has become the preeminent early childhood book-gifting program in the world. The Imagination Library mails more than three million high-quality, age-appropriate books directly to children’s homes each month. Each child enrolled in the program receives one book per month from birth to their 5th birthday. 

“Reading is essential to a successful, healthy life and we need to do all we can to instill a love of reading in the young people in our lives,” said Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz. “By working with partners such as Read to Succeed Buffalo we are able to bring the Imagination Library to Erie County, expanding our literacy reach and providing quality books to eager young minds.”

“Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library complements the continuum of RTSB programs that have delivered intentional instruction and exposure to developmentally appropriate, literacy-rich environments for children from birth through 3rd Grade; wherever they are including child care, preschool and the early elementary grades across Buffalo,” said RTSB Executive Director Anne Ryan. “We applaud the County Executive for recognizing how important it is to expose children, right from birth to written language and high-quality books in the home.” 

The grant from Erie County follows an announcement of a plan by New York State Governor Hochul to include $7 million in her proposed 2025-2026 state budget which would make New York an official Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library State.

RTSB previously implemented Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library from 2012–2018, mailing nearly 100,000 books to 5,000 infants, toddlers and preschoolers in the city of Buffalo, but funding issues forced the program to end.

The impact of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has been widely researched, and the results demonstrate its positive impact on early childhood development and literacy skills. Penguin Random House is the exclusive publisher of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. For more information, please visit https://imaginationlibrary.com/.

“Erie County is proud to partner with Read to Succeed on the expansion of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. With this program, we will put books in the hands of children across the county. We know that children who are exposed to literature at a young age are more likely to succeed academically. By providing engaging, age-appropriate books to families, we help to ensure that children are on track to achieve success in the classroom,” said Erie County Deputy Executive Lisa Chimera.

In addition to the costs for the books, other costs include postage, return postage for non-deliverable books, recruitment of participating newborns to 55 months, and maintenance of the mailing list.

This initiative will serve 28 zip codes across Erie County. The locations were strategically selected focusing on communities with high numbers of children under age five according to the 2020 Census. In addition, 11 more zip codes are being served by other Imagination Library sponsors in Erie County.