‘Promoting reading, literacy, and family’ Will County opens Imagination Library to bring books to children

Will County became the latest Illinois county to launch its branch of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library on Monday.

The office of the Will County Executive and the Will County Center for Economic Development held an event marking the establishment of Will County’s Imagination Library program at the C.W. Avery Family YMCA in Plainfield.

“As a former educator and a mom, we know how critical it is to get books to children at a young age,” said Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant, who pushed to get funding for Imagination Library at the state level. “Everyone I’ve spoken with has been very excited and inviting of this program. It’s a win for Will County and for education.”

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a national nonprofit organization created by the music star and supported by the Dollywood Foundation. The organization partners with local nonprofits to provide free books to participating children each month, no matter their background.

Families do not need to provide proof of need or any other qualifying information beyond their address, and books are available in English or in bilingual English and Spanish versions.

All the books chosen for the program are published by Penguin-Random House and are selected by the Blue Ribbon Book Selection Committee. The program also offers resources for parents who need children’s audiobooks or Braille books.

The state of Illinois became the 16th state to welcome Imagination Library in 2024, when it included funding in the state budget to match donations to the program for participating counties, lowering the cost for local partners from $32 per child per year to just $16. As of July, 77 of Illinois’ 102 counties have created their own versions of the program.

Counties that wish to participate must partner with a county-wide 501(c)3 nonprofit organization to coordinate the finances of the program. For Will County, that organization is the Will County Center for Economic Development, whose foundation also recently created an internship program for high school students.

“Jennifer brought this to us as her own passion project,” said Will County CED President and CEO Doug Pryor. “She’s the engine of this effort. It’s been nothing short of inspiring seeing her energy and belief in this, and I loved the idea of pairing an early literacy program with our high school internship program. We’re not just helping students today, we’re strengthening our pipeline for the future.”

The Will County CED and the Will County Executive’s Office have spent the last six months working to fundraise the $150,000 needed to get the program running. So far, the group has raised $199,000, although fundraising will be ongoing to continue providing books to families as children age out and new enrollees are born.

Will County schools, libraries, hospitals and community organizations like the YMCA have worked to enroll children in the program and collect donations.

According to Bertino-Tarrant, donations have ranged from $5 donated by residents to large corporate sponsorships.

During the Monday launch event, representatives from the Rotary Club of Joliet, Amazon and Jackson Generation – which donated $50,000, $30,000, and $25,000, respectively – were present to speak about the importance of early childhood education to the community.

“Our corporate partners have been fabulous,” Pryor said. “Some of our biggest employers are also our largest investors in this program.”

So far, more than 1,200 Will County children have enrolled in the Imagination Library program, though the organizers expect that number to grow quickly, as approximately 38,000 children are eligible for the program in Will County.

Before July, Imagination Library was already sending about 72,000 books to Illinois children each month, according to the program’s Illinois State Director Andi Drileck. That number is expected to rise by several thousand in the coming months as Will and Kankakee counties both had their programs come fully online.

“It’s really exciting,” said Bertino-Tarrant of the program’s official launch. “We’re a large community, but it’s great to see everyone wrapping around our youngest children to support them. This is such a positive program, and it does a great job promoting reading, literacy and family. I want to thank our state legislators and Governor Pritzker for prioritizing this program, because it is about the future of our community.”

Impact of Imagination Library

Since its founding in 1995, the program has reportedly mailed 280 million books to children in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland and Australia.

Studies highlighted by Imagination Library show children who are read books from birth are more prepared to learn when they enter kindergarten, and prepared students have an 85% chance of mastering basic skills by age 11, as opposed to a 45% chance for non-prepared students.

The organization also notes that children who do not receive “high-quality early childhood experiences” are 25% more likely to drop out of school and 60% less likely to attend college.