Dolly Parton speaks to a audience gathered to celebrate the expansion of the Imagination Library of Kentucky at the Lyric Theatre in Lexington, Ky. on Aug. 27. Johnson County’s Imagination Library is continuing to grow.
The Associated Press File Photo
When Dr. Susan Crisafulli, a Franklin College English professor, moved to Indiana with her two children, she noticed Johnson County did not yet have an Imagination Library. While living in Tennessee, where Dolly Parton first founded the library in 1995, she got to see how impactful it was for her kids and their reading development.
Then, in 2016, during a January immersive term, Crisafulli took a group of Franklin College students to Johnson County elementary schools to help children with their literacy skills.
“It was really clear how much those kids who were struggling didn’t have access to books,” Crisafulli said. “So I walked away from that experience very convinced that Johnson County needed to have the Imagination Library.”
The next year, she set about opening one herself and is now president of the Johnson County Imagination Library.
It was recently one of 10 organizations to receive grants totalling $855,000 from the Johnson County Community Foundation. The Imagination Library got $15,000 to match in hopes of hiring somebody to assist Crisafulli as the number of children enrolled rapidly grows.
“When we had 300 kids enrolled, it was a much more manageable thing to do, and now that we’re at 4,700 and growing, … I need help,” Crisafulli said.
Having added 200 new kids in the past month, the Johnson County Imagination Library has served more than 8,000 children in seven years.
The library serves as a free monthly book membership for kids from the time they are born until they turn 5. The books come in the mail addressed to the child and catering to their specific age range in hopes to aid their kindergarten readiness skills.
After the January immersive term in 2016, Crisafulli discovered that more than 40% of Johnson County children were not prepared for kindergarten, unable to identify letters or the sounds the letters make, she said.
Since before the pandemic, the Indiana Department of Education has been searching for solutions to a “literacy crisis” among the state’s elementary students, with the General Assembly most recently passing Senate Enrolled Act 1, mandating summer school for non-reading-proficient students among other provisions.
“Research shows having access to books before kindergarten improves kindergarten readiness, so that’s been our big goal,” Crisafulli said.
Katy Alexander, Franklin College’s nurse and mother of Imagination Library graduates Mari and George, said the Imagination Library helped her kids.
“Even before they could read, they were really quick to just sit down to flip through it and look at the pictures,” Alexander said. “I remember when their language skills weren’t even super developed yet. They would look at the pictures and kind of point and tell the story as they’re flipping through.”
Alexander also said she believes the Imagination Library contributed to her kids developing a love for reading and books.
“I liked getting mail from Dolly Parton and looking at the books and reading about new characters,” third-grader Mari said.
The Johnson County Imagination Library is supported by fundraising, sponsorships and donations. Its biggest fundraiser is Storybook Breakfast, which will be held this year on Nov. 2. It allows kids to come meet their favorite storybook character, eat pancakes and get their autograph books signed.
The Imagination Library is available in all 50 United States and in four other countries. As of 2022, 2 million books were being mailed to children every month. Last year, that meant one in 10 kids under the age of 5 were receiving books to help enrich their lives. Now that number is one in seven.
By Grace Wilson, a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
