Dolly Parton's book gift scheme launches on IOM

Dolly Parton's book-gifting scheme is intended to help children develop a love of reading "that lasts a lifetime", an organiser said as the idea was launched in Douglas.

The singer's Imagination Library delivers a free book each month to children under the age of five and is being introduced for the first time on the island.

Originally set up in 1995 in Parton's home state of Tennessee, the initiative was launched in the UK in 2007 to improve literacy rates and education outcomes.

Trish McDonough, who organises the scheme on the Isle of Man, said: "Language is the gateway" in education, adding, "if your language is good then it's easier to learn everything else."

At a recent Tynwald Select Committee hearing, the Department for Education, Sports and Culture's chief executive Graham Kinrade said one cause of the education attainment gap between children from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers was access to pre-school age literary materials.

"The Imagination Library directly addresses this by providing every child, regardless of background, with a steady supply of age-appropriate books from birth to their fifth birthday," Ms McDonough said.

"I love the idea that all children born in the same calendar year get the same book each month, so it is quite nice because they all have that relationship with their peers and can speak about them," she said.

It was also an "egalitarian thing, everyone gets the same," she said, adding: "People talk about the squeezed middle, they are not eligible for anything really, but they can get this."

Even if parents could afford books, often they were not sure which material to buy and what was age appropriate, she continued.

During the programme, young children can accumulate a total of 60 books if they are signed up from birth, Ms McDonough said.

Parents or carers with a Douglas postcode can register for their children to be included in the scheme, and the Isle of Man Imagination Library hopes to be able to expand the programme to include the whole island.

Under the scheme, the Isle of Man Imagination Library raises the funding to cover the cost of books and postage in Douglas, while Parton's Dollywood Foundation covers the scheme's central administration and coordinates large-scale publishing and distribution partnerships.

The books are selected by a committee based in the UK, and each year the selection changes.

Meg Fletcher, regional director of the Dollywood Foundation, said: "Children under five in Douglas will be able to develop a love of books and reading that lasts a lifetime."

The charity said access to books in early years supports language development and school readiness, and the scheme aims to help remove barriers to early literacy.

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