USBBY nominates Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library for the 2022 IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is the USBBY nominee for the 2022 IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award.  Judged by an international jury, the award is given biennially to a group or organization whose outstanding activities continue to make a lasting contribution to book promotion for children and young people. The prize-winning organization will receive a diploma and $10,000, donated by the Asahi Shimbun Newspaper of Japan. 

The United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) is the National Section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY).  Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library was chosen by the USBBY IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award Committee after examining a wide array of reading promotion programs in the United States with local, national, and international reach. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which she started in 1995 in her hometown in Sevier County, Tennessee, has proliferated widely throughout the United States as well as expanded into Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom.  The organization works with over 2,500 affiliates and 23,000 communities worldwide.   

Each of the over 1.8 million children enrolled in the program receives a book in the mail every month from the time of birth to age five. As of July 2021, the Imagination Library has gifted more than 165 million free books to over 6 million children around the world. Given its broad reach and high impact, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is eminently worthy of the international recognition afforded by its nomination and highly qualified to compete with nominees from IBBY’s 80 other National Sections.  

The 2022 USBBY IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award Committee is comprised of Elizabeth Poe, chair; Denise Dávila; Sue Christian Parsons; and Laura Shovan.  For more information contact the United States Board on Books for Young People at: [email protected].