In the days since the death of country singer-songwriter, businesswoman and philanthropist Dolly Parton, 75 children have been signed up for Parton’s Imagination Library program that the New Salem Academy helps coordinate across nine towns in Franklin County and the North Quabbin.
That’s According to Nate Hurwitz, the Imagination Library local partner program coordinator and trustee of New Salem Academy, which acts as a local partner for the program that Parton’s Dollywood Foundation funds and oversees.
Since starting the local partnership in July 2024, Hurwitz says the free book gifting program now operates in nine communities. It began in New Salem, Orange and Wendell and later expanded to Athol, Erving, Leverett, Montague, Petersham and Shutesbury.
With the additional 75 children now signed up for the program since Parton’s death on Aug. 25, there are now 450 area children who receive an age-appropriate book mailed directly to them each month. Hurwitz said there are approximately 1,000 eligible kids that could benefit from the program locally.
For Hurwitz, Parton’s death was “bittersweet,” noting that he was on a call with the Dollywood Foundation just before finding out about her death. His feelings come from both the loss of Parton and the parents who signed up for the program since her death.
“She is the perfect person to help drive this mission of a love of reading forward, and I think she really has had such a tremendous impact,” Hurwitz said, “just to think that three million children registered, and 300 million books total have been given out to children as a result of this.”
Parton died at age 80 after a brief battle with cancer in Nashville, Tennessee. According to the announcement of her death on her official website, Parton is described as a “beloved singer, songwriter, philanthropist, actress, playwright and author,” whose career spanned seven decades. Some of her most popular songs include “Jolene” and “9 to 5.”
Parton was also a well-known philanthropist and businesswoman, and launched the Imagination Library in 1995 in her home of Sevier County, Tennessee. Inspired by her father’s illiteracy, Parton started the program with a goal to grow children’s love of reading. Thirty-one years later, the program operates in five countries, with 14% of children below the age of 5 benefitting from it in the U.S. as of 2024.
For families who sign up for the program, the Imagination Library sends a free book to those with children up to 5 years old, with the first book being “The Little Engine that Could.” Bilingual English-Spanish books are also an option that families can choose to sign up for.
If a child is signed up right when they are born, Hurwitz said they can expect to receive up to 60 books before they “graduate” from the program.
One of these local parents, Samantha Spisiak, had her daughter, Etta Reagan, of Shutesbury, signed up for the program in 2025 when Reagan was just three years old. In that time, Spisiak says her daughter received around 15 books before she aged out of the program when turning 5.
“It was just such a wonderful experience,” Spisiak said about the program. “It always feels like reading one book opens the floodgates for children to start to read.”
When a book would come in the mail addressed specifically to Reagan, Spisiak says she saw her daughter take a sense of ownership over them. Together, the family would read together, with Spisiak describing it as a “family affair” between her three children.
Although Reagan has aged out of the program and is beginning kindergarten, the reading will continue, Spisiak said, who shared that she and her family are frequent patrons of the Shutesbury Public Library, which was one of the first to join the program after it was implemented locally, Hurwitz said.
In these nine communities, Hurwitz says the libraries can help spread the word about the program, and providing educational materials on how to sign up. Recently, a life-sized Parton was brought to some of the local libraries to promote the program.
Beyond the act of helping children learn to read, Hurwitz said the best part is bringing children a “shared experience,” regardless of their financial or geographic location.
“All the children will have received the same up to 60 books since they were born, and have that shared experience to bond over [and] to make friends as they go into those learning years,” Hurwitz said.
Montague Public Libraries Youth Services Librarian Angela Rovatti-Leonard shared that from her perspective, getting the books in the mail not only helps instill the importance of reading for children and their parents, but can create a routine or a ritual around reading, giving children practice on the mechanisms of reading, like turning a page or following the text on page.
One of the most important features of this program is how the books are sent straight to the children, Hurwitz notes. On top of the shared experience that children can bond over, there is an accessibility to reading that the program provides to children in these rural communities.
“It takes away a barrier from literacy,” Rovatti-Leonard said. “It puts the books right in their hands.”
In Montague, Rebecca Danielsen and her son, 3-year-old Milo Danielsen, have been benefitting from the Imagination Library since signing up. In fact, Milo has said he wants to be a librarian when she grows up, Danielsen said.
Some of their favorite books have been “Rose Weaves a Garden,” “Danbi’s Favorite Day,” and “The Outside,” which children born in 2022 and are in the program will have received. Since starting the program, Danielsen feels that these books have contributed to his love of reading, and as a parent, having access to a free an accessible service has been “so helpful.”
“She’s one of the few people who’ve become rich and powerful that’s used it for good,” Danielsen said in reflecting on Parton’s legacy and impact with the Imagination Library.
For families residing in these nine communities, registration for the Imagination Library can be done by going online to the Imagination Library website at https://tinyurl.com/mtp4renb.
