Imagination Library Soars Across Montana
October 2025
Article by Stephanie Hobby | Photo courtesy of Imagination Library of Montana
Thirty years ago, country music icon Dolly Parton launched the Imagination Library to benefit the children in her hometown of East Tennessee, to increase literacy and foster a love of reading from an early age. Growing up with a father who could not read, Parton saw firsthand how the inability to decipher the written word could hold people back in unimaginable ways.
Every month, in cooperation with the Dollywood Foundation, she sent age-appropriate books to registered children from birth to age five, at no cost to families. The effort to get books to emerging readers quickly gained momentum, and within five years, an initiative to replicate it nationwide was underway.
By 2003, the Dollywood Foundation mailed its one millionth book. Today, more than three million children across five countries are registered with the Imagination Library, and over two million books are mailed every month, totaling more than 289 million books shipped as of August.
Parton and the Dollywood Foundation cover the costs of selecting and printing books, along with administrative expenses to manage the logistics network, and the local community is responsible for securing funding for books and postage.
In 2023, a handful of isolated communities across the Treasure State offered the program to their children; however, there was not a coordinated effort in Montana to support Imagination Library, nor was there a universal funding mechanism. When Montana First Lady Susan Gianforte learned about the program, she was determined to make it a success here. “I was just over the moon excited,” she said.
With funds from the Gianforte’s Treasure State Foundation to cover local communities’ costs for postage and wholesale book costs, she launched the statewide initiative in June 2023. Gianforte started by reaching out to local libraries, which are ideally equipped to connect with young children and their families, and she was able to grow the program quickly. Today, half of Montana’s youngest children are registered with Imagination Library. In Yellowstone County, of the 10,000 children under five, 4,400 are currently enrolled, and 1,700 have graduated from the program.
“If they can't read, they can't learn what's being taught in the classroom. It is just so foundational for children, especially being read to early. The development in the first three years is when 90 percent of the brain is developed, all those neuronal connections are made,” said Gianforte. “What has been found in other statewide programs that have been doing it for a few years is that when kids get to kindergarten, they're ready to learn to read if they're not already reading some. And they're ready to learn because they're used to sitting and engaging with the story, engaging with a person, talking about what's in the book, and all those great aspects of caregiver bonding and learning through reading.”
After hearing Gianforte speak about her work with Imagination Library, Billings Clinic Foundation’s Director of Development Patrick Klugman contacted Nichole Mehling, President of the Billings Clinic Foundation, and Mandy Goodman, Director of Women's and Children's Inpatient Services at the Billings Clinic, to see if the Clinic could help spread the word with an emphasis on the maternity wards, NICU, and pediatric services.
The answer was a resounding “yes,” and last spring, the Billings Clinic started helping parents to register their children. This partnership makes the Billings Clinic the first major hospital in Montana to promote Montana’s Imagination Library.
As a Georgia native, Goodman was well-acquainted with the positive effects of the Imagination Library. As a nurse, she knows firsthand the crucial role those early years play in brain development. “It’s not just having flyers at the desk,” she said. “We have seized the opportunity to take it a little bit further. So, on the labor, delivery, recovery, and postpartum side, our nurses proactively talk with families about the Imagination Library during their stay after their baby is born.”
Goodman says the Billings Clinic’s reach makes it an ideal partner for publicizing the program, as it provides care for patients from across Montana and northern Wyoming. “Our pediatric team is amazing simply because, not only do they care about being nurses to our patients, but they care about how these kids grow up, and they have really embraced this,” Goodman said.
“I'm just excited that kids have the opportunity to have books in the home, because, especially in a state like Montana, where we're so rural that it's hard for people to get to the county library or even a satellite, this is a great way for kids to get a book a month, exposure to books in early childhood sets children up for success later in life."
-Susan Gianforte
After running the program independently, Gianforte hired Teal Whitaker as the director of community engagement for the Imagination Library of Montana a little less than a year and a half ago. Whitaker says local community partners are at the heart of the program’s success, and last fall, United Way of Yellowstone County signed on to oversee the local program, handling administration tasks and managing accounts.
Gianforte and Whitaker are also collaborating with Urban Indian Health and Wellness Centers and Head Start programs statewide to encourage participation. Since its 2023 inception in Montana, more than 27,250 children have registered, with numbers continuing to rise. More than 560,000 books have been sent across Montana. The yearly cost per child is $30, and Montana is one of 21 states to offer the program to every interested child in the state.
To mark the second anniversary and celebrate the success of the Imagination Library of Montana, Dolly Parton joined supporters and partners in Bozeman for a private anniversary event at the end of August.
To learn more about Imagination Library or to enroll your child, visit
Originally printed in the October 2025 issue of Simply Local Magazine
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