In a recent announcement by the North Carolina Partnership for Children and Smart Start Network, it was shared that the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program in North Carolina has expanded by introducing a new bilingual book collection, and Rowan County families can sign-up with Smart Start Rowan and DPIL to receive one each month.

DPIL has fostered a love of reading among children aged birth to five by delivering specially selected books to their homes each month since 2017 and is available in every county in North Carolina through the Smart Start Network. Currently, the program reaches approximately 4,000 children from birth to five each month in Rowan County.

As of June 10, participating families can choose between two library book collections — an English collection and a fully bilingual English/Spanish collection.

The English collection is primarily English books with an occasional bilingual English/Spanish book, and the bilingual English/Spanish collection is exclusively bilingual English/Spanish books.

This change helps DPIL and Smart Start Rowan provide equitable access to high-quality children’s literature for Spanish-speaking families across the state.

“The addition of fully bilingual English/Spanish Imagination Library books is a great option for Spanish-speaking families that provides more equitable access to the program. It moves us closer to helping inspire all children to love reading through the gift of Imagination Library books,” said Jeff Conyers, president of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

“We serve many Spanish-speaking families who will benefit tremendously from this bilingual option now offered by Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library,” said Amy Brown, executive director of Smart Start Rowan. “We are very proud to partner with such a wonderful organization to help ensure that more diverse and high-quality books are received into the homes and hearts of Rowan children and families.”

Amy Cubbage, president of the North Carolina Partnership for Children, is also enthusiastic about the new initiative.“

“This expansion is another great step towards ensuring that every child in North Carolina has access to quality books that foster the skill and love of reading.” Cubbage said. “We are thrilled to be able to reach more children and honor the diverse languages and cultures that make our communities strong.”

Both collections have been carefully curated by the book selection committee to inspire a love of reading, ensuring that every child can develop strong literacy skills from an early age. While some titles will overlap between the collections, there will be unique books specific to each collection mailed out monthly.

To find out more about Smart Start Rowan and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library partnership or to register a child in Rowan County, go to https://rowan-smartstart.org/ or call 704-630-9085

About Smart Start and the North Carolina Partnership for Children

Smart Start is a network of 75 nonprofit local partnerships that serve all 100 North Carolina counties. This network is led by The North Carolina Partnership for Children (NCPC) that ensures fiscal and programmatic accountability and coordinates the statewide network to create better outcomes for children and families. For more information about the network’s partnership with DPIL, go to http://www.smartstart.org/dolly-partons-imagination-library/

About Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (DPIL)

DPIL is a book gifting program for children from birth to age five. The mission of the program is to foster a love of reading in preschool children and ensure that every child born has books, regardless of their family’s income.