I signed my eldest kid up for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library before I even put her on my health insurance. This may have been the first in a string of questionable parenting decisions that continue to this day, but can you blame me? Who can deny the luxury of free books being sent to you?

Like Parton’s own life, the program had humble roots. Parton started the initiative in 1995, as a way of getting books to kids close to her home in East Tennessee. It was a way of honoring her father, who did not know how to read or write. Since then, through some crafty partnerships between publishers, non-profits and local governments, the reach of the Imagination Library has spread throughout the country and even internationally. According to its website, the Imagination Library has sent out more than 300 million books since its inception. That said, as widely beloved as Dolly Parton seems to be, the Imagination Library isn’t immune to funding cuts.

Readers of this newsletter probably don’t need to be preached to about the importance of parents reading to young kids. But what’s special about the Imagination Library is that the parent is more there simply as a word-delivery vehicle. The books are addressed to the kid, not the grown up. And since mine started getting packages, she’s gotten books that have become household staples, books that I like but she has no interest in, books that she loves which I have to read again and again, and books that we both agree to give away. In short, she’s becoming her own reader. Her own person. And so maybe prioritizing the Imagination Library before health insurance wasn’t a questionable decision. Maybe it makes perfect sense. In the latter she’s my dependent. But with these books, it’s a small step towards independence. As Parton once told NPR, “if you can read, it gives you wings to fly anywhere you want to go.”

Have you received books from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library? Do you have any favorite picks, or fond memories? Let us know – bookoftheday@npr.org.